DAYTIME TV Ellen DeGeneres prepares to step into 3rd season

The host plans to take the show out of the studio.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- How Ellen DeGeneres spent her summer vacation: accepting a bouquet of Daytime Emmys and agreeing to host this month's prime-time Emmy ceremony. Oh, and reconsidering her trademark dancing on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
That last item could send DeGeneres fans reeling. The comedian's happy-feet boogie at the start of her syndicated talk show has turned into a big crowd pleaser. Too big, maybe.
"I love to dance and I know people love watching me dance. But at the same time it never was intended to be an everyday thing on the show," she said. "What people talk about more than the show itself is the dance."
Third season
But some kind of hoofing will be part of the show's third season, which starts Tuesday with guests Alicia Keys and Ray Romano. DeGeneres has figured out it's important to viewers, and why.
"I think it's sort of representative of a freedom that I have, and I know I have, and I think a lot of people don't have that," said DeGeneres, who swings easily from conversational banter to introspection.
"A lot of people stay contained and want to come off a certain way," she said. "I think that dance is an expression of freedom, and I don't care how I look -- this is just me being me. And I think that people tap into that and think, 'That's so much fun.'"
And it is, said DeGeneres, who's reveling in the freedom of being herself. She considers the awards welcome -- the show earned five Emmys in May, including best host and its second consecutive best talk show honors -- but not proof she's on the right track.
"I think I let go of the need for approval," DeGeneres told The Associated Press. "It certainly feels good when you get it, but I used to be more desperate for it. Once I felt better inside about myself ... I could do everything based on how I want to do things."
There was skepticism
The romantic notion of a Hollywood comeback is overused but clearly applies to DeGeneres, who seemed an unlikely candidate for the role of daytime television's newest sweetheart.
When her show from Warner Bros. Telepictures Productions was first pitched to TV station managers they viewed it with skepticism, she said. After all, consider her history: She came out as a lesbian while starring in a popular sitcom, lost that show when ratings fell and saw another comedy flop.
It seemed like a formula for disaster to those who couldn't look beyond DeGeneres' sexual orientation.
"Nobody thought I could do daytime and do well. Nobody thought that housewives would want to watch me. 'Why would a housewife have anything in common with a gay woman?'" DeGeneres recalled hearing. "Like you're not going to talk about men, not talk about kids."
There was also the unfounded concern that "my show's going to have some kind of sexuality to it," said DeGeneres. That despite the fact that she's always "worked clean," avoiding raw topics or language even on cable specials lacking boundaries.
"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has remained true to her brand of winsome observational humor, the sort in which toilet paper rolls that are hard to unravel or wildlife invading her garden become the stuff of shared recognition and laughs.
She's a charming everywoman whose sexuality is a nonissue, or one reserved for breezy comment, and who manages to get Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep, Kanye West and Cameron Diaz to drop by (all among the guests scheduled for the new season).
"She's in the mold of Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld," said industry analyst Bill Carroll, adding: "You can accept that Ellen could be like us."
DeGeneres, 47, acknowledges that she needed to put some time and distance between her overheated exposure as a show biz controversy du jour (which included attention to her dishy girlfriends, Portia de Rossi being her current one) and her television re-entry.
Now, she said, people can see her as she is.