After 19 seasons, Ellen DeGeneres is calling it quits. She announced today that the upcoming season of her daytime talk show will be her last. The Ellen DeGeneres Show premiered in syndication on September 8, 2003 and has remained one of the best-rated shows on daytime TV for nearly two decades.

Finally, DeGeneres says she’s ready to move on — a decision she told The Hollywood Reporter has been coming for years. She claims she was ready to quit when it came time to sign her current contract several years ago, but was convinced to stay for three more seasons. Asked why she wanted to move on from a show that still earns her many millions of dollars every year, DeGeneres told THR:

I’m a creative person, and when you’re a creative person you constantly need to be challenged, which is why I decided to host the Oscars or why I decided to go back to stand up when I didn’t think I would. I just needed something to challenge me. And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore. I need something new to challenge me.

DeGeneres also insisted the decision had nothing to do with the allegations from last summer about a “toxic work culture” behind the scenes of her show. Following numerous reports in the press, a Warner Bros. investigation resulted in several executive producers leaving the show — not to mention some damage to DeGeneres’ image as one of the nicest people in television.

In response to a question about how the scandal affected her choice to quit her show, DeGeneres claimed “if I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn’t have come back this season.” She also says she’s not sure what she’s going to do next, but did add that she would be interested in returning to movies “for sure. If there were a great role.” Ellen will discuss her decision further on tomorrow’s episode of Ellen with guest Oprah Winfrey.

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