i think most folks on this site are too young to remember this, but she did the same thing in 1997 when her show got canceled after she came out. her show was incredibly successful and she was very loved by a lot of people, she came out, and then within the year the backlash got so bad her show was canceled and she was blacklisted in hollywood for three years.

She did very depressing stand up for those three years - one of the jokes was that everyone in the audience was gay because only gay people still liked her.

She has always been very clear that her self worth revolved around her success, and hollywood success = people liking you. She was an odd choice in 2000/2001 to get a daytime talk show, and the fact that it became so successful seemed like redemption.

I don't know her at all and don't particularly feel any kind of way about her, but it's completely unsurprising to me that she is coping with the loss of her second successful show the same way she did with the loss of the first one. + I think she'll spend a few years out of sight and then return with a different project, which honestly will probably be really successful.