When it came time to come up with a title for Ellen DeGeneres' upcoming CBS sitcom, the star admits she battled with the network. "They wanted 'Ellen' in the title, absolutely. I wanted 'Cindy Crawford' in the title. I thought more people would watch."

Ultimately, they settled on "The Ellen Show," which premieres on Monday, Sept. 24 at 9:30 p.m. ET. (The series' regular time slot will be Fridays at 8 p.m. ET).

"The Ellen Show" -- which is hysterical, by the way -- casts DeGeneres as Ellen Richman. The wealthy and successful 38-year-old lives in Los Angeles, where she runs an Internet company. But when that business goes belly up, Ellen has to start life over in Clark, the small town she grew up in. There she is reunited with her mom (Cloris Leachman) and sister (Emily Rutherfurd), as well as her old high school economics professor (Martin Mull) and her prom date (Jim Gaffigan). Meanwhile, the high school gym teacher (Diane Delano) develops a crush on Ellen, who is an out lesbian.

No one in Clark seems to have a problem with Ellen's sexual orientation. "Nobody is shocked by it. It just is what it is, and they accept her for who she is," DeGeneres said during a press conference at the Television Critics Press Tour in Pasadena, California.

It was quite a big deal when both DeGeneres and her sitcom alter ego from "Ellen" came out a few years back. Looking back, DeGeneres is glad she came out, but admits that viewers -- at least at the time -- weren't interested or perhaps were not ready to watch a sitcom character go through the coming out process. "I think people want to sit at home and turn on their TV and laugh," she says. "I understand that now."

Still, DeGeneres has no regrets. "At the time, I got caught up in something that was very, very important to me. And from the letters I was getting, and when I started becoming educated about the gay bashings in high school that go on every single day, and the attempted suicides, I couldn't ignore it," she says.

While "Ellen" was eventually cancelled, DeGeneres and the show paved the way for subsequent series such as "Will & Grace." For whatever reason, that show didn't cause the controversy "Ellen" did. Does that ever irk DeGeneres?

"I don't feel resentful at all. I feel really grateful for that. It sounds corny, maybe, but I did something that was important and necessary for me to just be fully who I am and not hide it anymore, and to get rid of the shame that I had been living with for a long, long time," she says. "If it helped other people, I think that's a wonderful thing."

As for her latest series, the character's sexual orientation will not be the focus on the show. "This is going to be a funny show, and she happens to be gay, and we deal with it as much as we deal with the fact that she's a woman," DeGeneres says.

Will Ellen date? As we see in the season premiere, the gym teacher has the hots for her. "The character has just gotten out of a relationship, so she's not really looking to date," DeGeneres says. "She's kind of just back in town for a little bit, regrouping and finding out what's important in life. ... So I don't think we're going to focus on that for awhile."

When it comes to her own private life, DeGeneres, who had a high-profile romance with Anne Heche, keeps mum these days. "This time around, my private life is my private life," she says.

At the moment, her focus is on making "The Ellen Show" a hit. Why come back to TV when she might have concentrated on a film or stand-up career? "Well, it's my mortgage payment for one," she jokes. "I mean, it's what I do. ... I love doing television. I love the pace of it. I love being in front of an audience."

CBS hasn't exactly given "The Ellen Show" the best time slot: Fridays at 8 p.m. ET. But the network argues that "Everybody Loves Raymond" started out on Fridays before moving to Mondays. For her part, DeGeneres has no complaints. "I'm thrilled. I'm hoping we can move to Sunday mornings at 7 eventually," she says