Ellen DeGeneres had a special, and quite emotional, surprise for Stephen Boss (aka DJ tWitch) on Wednesday’s episode of “The Ellen Show,” which is its second-to-last.
The long-running talk show is set to end Thursday, and DeGeneres wanted to make sure that Boss, who has been the host’s sidekick since 2014, felt the love. Before introducing her next segment, DeGeneres asked Boss to come sit next to her on stage.
“I love you so much,” she said as Boss sat down, pointing out that it was “just a coincidence” that his mom and best friend were in the studio audience for that taping. She then rolled a heartfelt video tribute to her favorite fake DJ, which began with her tearing up as she said she didn’t want to say goodbye to her friend.
In the clip, DeGeneres explained that the two met when Boss was hired to help her learn a dance from “So You Think You Can Dance” after he was the runner-up on the show. After that, their friendship blossomed and she brought him on to the show as her right-hand man.
“Whenever he’s not here for whatever reason, it’s just different. I count on him to look over at and make silly jokes. He’s my pal. He’s my sidekick, because we have this connection,” she says in the video. “He’s never gonna be out of my life.”
As the cameras panned back to the stage, Boss wiped tears from his eyes as DeGeneres presented him with a framed photo of the pair walking off stage together with their arms around each other.
“I love the family that we’ve gained,” he told DeGeneres. Something that I’ll always remember is that you gave me a place where I could just be myself.”
You can watch the full clip above.
The penultimate episode of “The Ellen Show” airs Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. The finale episode of the show will air Thursday at the same time.
