I believe all talk shows with a studio audience give their studio seating away for free.
So far that is what I am seeing, looking at Ellen DeGenres page I do't see it when looking but I am assuming that again they are free tickets, where you can have up to 3 guests, plus yourself but you do have to give your guests names, so really you can't transfer tickets. And they can't make money on the show when they give free tickets away, in less they have sponsors for the shows. Ellen does her shows from Burbank where other shows even more the morning shows are done from New York. Steve Harvey;'s second of his tv show was done from Las Angeles, where it originally did it from the NBC tower in Chicago when he first started.