Our first guest is an Emmy award winning journalist and co-host
of the CBS This Morning show.
Please welcome Gayle King.
Hi.
Hi, Gayle.
How are you?
God, I'm so jealous.
I want to be there in your studio.
Number one, I'm a little worried about your crew.
They're having sex at Glee concerts.
Twitch, I knew that was you.
I guessed that that was you.
I was just surprised it was at a Glee concert.
Then they're trying to poison the baby sitters.
Then they're mistaken as madams.
But I want to meet-- and I want to meet Andy.
I'm so bummed we can't be in the studio.
I know, Gayle.
But I'm [INAUDIBLE] here.
Hi, Andy.
Andy says hi.
He's waving to you.
Yes, we are so bummed that you're not here as well.
By the way, I just want to mention I was watching you
this morning, and I can't believe you
don't know what pickleball is.
It is like the fastest growing--
I have no idea.
Oh, it is-- I love it.
It is something that I am obsessed with right now.
It's the fastest growing sport in the country.
You'll know about it.
Fastest growing sport in the country, Ellen?
Really?
Pickleball?
No, seriously.
It is, Gayle.
It is.
I've never heard of it.
And we-- well, when we get together again someday,
we'll play pickleball, and you'll love it.
We actually gave away--
because we're doing 12 Days right now--
we gave away a pickleball set the other day.
You love the holidays, don't you?
I love the holidays.
Yeah.
I love the holidays, but I'm so bummed.
We just got through Thanksgiving.
I'm about to go on another fast, because you know what happens
Thanksgiving-- you pig out.
But you can't-- I can't be with the people I care about--
favorite son, favorite daughter, Oprah.
They're all in California.
Nobody wants to get on a plane.
And so it's--
I'm bummed, but listen--
I'm alive and COVID-free, so I'm not
going to sit here and moan about it.
It is different.
It is different for sure.
Yes.
We all have a lot to be grateful for when you look around
at what's happening everywhere.
And you usually go to Hawaii with Oprah for Christmas.
Are you going to do that this year or no?
Well, Ellen, listen.
You know Oprah ain't playing with that 14-day quarantine.
And so if you go to visit her, you
have to quarantine in the guest house for 14 days.
It's a very lovely guest house as we know,
but that's all I get--
is 14 days.
So why do I want to go to Hawaii and just sit in a guest house?
So I won't be able to do that either.
I really don't know what I'm going to do for Christmas,
because Kirby and Will are going to be with her in Hawaii, too,
at Christmastime.
Oh, no.
I don't know.
I'm sorry to hear.
Yeah, when you-- you're back in the studio now,
but this summer you did the show from Oprah's guest house.
So you quarantined, and then you finally
got to hang out with her.
Yes, we got to go to the main house, Ellen,
after being there for 14 days.
We've been there for six weeks, so it was great.
Yeah, look at that.
So there we were.
It is a very lovely guest house, and we
took over the whole place, which was very nice of her to do.
But there's just something, you know--
this is the thing.
This COVID thing that we're all going through--
it's not a hierarchy of pain, because it's
tough for everybody.
But I am trying to focus on what I have as opposed to what I
don't.
But I called it the Santa Barbara Bureau,
because it's very nice digs and very good accommodations
and a very good price.
Very good price.
Yeah.
Free.
Yeah.
So let me ask you about what's going on in the country.
You've covered a lot of elections.
This one-- I mean, you were up for days and days, right?
This was a tough one for a lot of journalists.
Well, it was tough, because I just
think we're all exhausted by it all, honestly.
You think of-- we've got COVID, we've had politics,
we've had racial unrest.
It's like three things that could easily
bring you to your knees.
It's been a big bowl of ugly.
But the political season--
we all just wanted it to be done one way or the other,
and we're still sort of living through it.
The president only last week agreed to the transition
of power so let's--
the decision has been made.
Let's move on.
But the thing is, the country is so divided, Ellen.
I'm actually scared about it, to be honest with you.
It's a very-- we're so mean and so nasty, and so hair-triggered
with each other.
And I'm trying to figure out a way for all of us
to tone it down a little bit-- tone it
down, speak to each other.
I'm with you when you always say kindness--
it's one of my favorite words.
I know you feel the same.
We have to figure out a way to get back to meeting each other.
We really do.
Yeah.
And I think we can do that.
Yes, we--
And to his credit, President-elect Biden
is saying all the right things.
He said, look-- I know a lot of people didn't vote for me,
but I'm your president, and I want us all to become united.
I think that's a good way to start.
I'll take that.
That's the only thing that we any president,
any leader should be doing.
You know, they are leading the country.
It is not one group of people.
And yeah, I'm with you as far as the division
that we have going on here.
And there's a lot of anger, which I understand.
There's a lot of angry people, there's a lot of sad people,
but we're all in this boat together right now.
We really need to find a way--
I agree with you.
What keeps you-- what do you, you know,
especially with the division-- with social unrest--
what is the positive message that you
can give or are getting?
I believe that we are more alike than we are different.
I honestly do believe that.
We all want love.
We all want to be loved.
We want to have good jobs.
We want to have friends and family who care about us.
So I think with that, we are united.
And I also think that we are more good than we are not.
I do-- I believe the core of us wants to do the right thing.
And so I remain optimistic, and I remain hopeful about that.
Me, too.
I really do.
All right.
Ellen, I know you feel this, and I
don't mean to sound Pollyanna wearing rose-colored glasses.
My favorite color is yellow, which
is the color of sunshine and butter, all good things.
But I do think that we want--
let's never forget that the power of the people
is greater than the people in power.
We the people is really us.
We can control this.
We can do this.
And that's what keeps me going.
Yep, I agree with you.
That's a good thing to remember--
the power of the people is more powerful than the people
in power.
People in power.
I like it.
It's true.
That's all right.
Gayle, look up pickleball while we take this break.
We'll be back.