American Idol has an official full time replacement for recently departed judge Paula Abdul and it’s none other than talk show hostess Ellen Degeneres. For a while there it looked like Paula might be back on Idol if she was able to reach a contract agreement with producers, but it looks like that door has now closed. Ellen made the announcement on her show yesterday to thunderous applause and screams from the studio audience. In terms of how she’ll cope with running a successful talkshow and working on a wildly popular talent show, Ellen explained “I’m going to have a day job and a night job. The times we’re livin’ in, we’re all doing that.” Fox has confirmed that Ellen will be a permanent member of the judge’s panel. I guess Kirstie Alley won’t be replacing Paula after all:
Ellen DeGeneres is taking Paula Abdul’s place as the fourth judge on American Idol.
“DeGeneres will sit alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi and offer her own unique perspective to the contestants throughout the competition,” Fox television says in a statement.
DeGeneres, 51, begins her stint after the audition rounds, which have featured a rotating group of celebrity guest judges including Shania Twain, Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Joe Jonas and Kristin Chenoweth.
Two Jobs
“I’m going to have a day job and a night job,” DeGeneres said at her talk show taping Wednesday, assuring her audience that The Ellen DeGeneres Show will continue. “This is so exciting for me.”Abdul abruptly announced in August, just before the start of American Idol’s ninth season, that with “sadness in my heart” she was leaving the highly rated show hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
In the taping for Thursday’s Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres said the deal had been in the works for the last couple of weeks. “I’ve been dying to tell everyone,” she says. “It’s just been so hard to keep it a secret and we just finally got the OK and I’m so excited. It is going to be so much fun.”
The People’s Voice
She said she’s been a longtime fan of the show – “I have not missed one episode” – and she plans to serve as the voice of the regular audience member.“Hopefully I’m the people’s point of view because I’m just like you,” DeGeneres says. “I sit at home and I watch it. … I’m not looking at it in a critical way from the producer’s mind. I’m looking at it as a person who is going to buy the music and is going to relate to that person.
The next season of American Idol begins in January. In the statement released by Fox, Idol creator and executive producer Simon Fuller says, “Ellen has been a fan of the show for many years, and her love of music and understanding of the American public will bring a unique human touch to our judging panel.”
[From People]
People love Ellen Degeneres and it was a smart move to pick such a likable public figure to replace Paula. The sad thing is, Idol probably had to offer Ellen a contract worth way more than they were willing to give Paula. Is that fair or did Paula kind of run her course on the show? She has a lot of fans, but she did make some negative public statements about Idol management and she wasn’t always sober on the job. I used to be team Paula, but now that Ellen is in the mix I kind of see the wisdom of choosing someone new.
Ellen seems to have a good rapport with alpha judge Simon Cowell. TMZ points us to Cowell’s appearance on Ellen’s show last May. In an exchange about his dating life, Cowell said he wasn’t dating anyone in particular, but explained “I like girls.”
“Me too!” Ellen chimed in.
“That’s why we get on well. That’s why we like each other.” Simon quipped.
Ellen and Portia are shown at the Daytime Emmy Awards on 8/30/09. Credit: WENN.com
Ugh. I like Ellen well enough, but this is NOT the show for her. What terrible judgement! She’s going to ruin the show with idiotic jokes.
I just love Ellen…. but she’s just too goshdarn nice to be a good and effective judge. She won’t want to hurt people’s feelings, so she won’t critique where necessary in a show like this. However, IF she can add some humor to the show, it might be worth it. And she herself is so happy about being a judge, I suppose I’ll have to give her the benefit of the doubt.
It’ll be refreshing to see that Living Bottle of Prescripts replaced by someone coherent.
Paula was all-out sloppy and her bits were definitely a fast-forward moment for me.
Not that I don’t like Paula, I do, I just think she could’ve shared her pain meds with those of us who painfully winced while watching her.
Yay Ellen.
I’m not a fan of either of them but i do think that having a sober judge will improve the show. I think she will probably make a good judge and be more in tune with the audience that the others
Terrible idea. I love Ellen, but she is not right for this show.
I love Ellen but she’s not in the music industry. This is the most stupid thing I’ve heard in a long time.
She was dreadful on So You Think You Can Dance – I hope she takes this a little more seriously or it will be a serious “turn off” moment!
I am going to withhold judgment until I see how Ellen does.
I wish they would have replaced that Kara woman. I cannot stand her and will not watch Idol because of her. She is obnoxious.
Ugh! I have to agree with a poster from another thread. A little bit of Ellen goes a long way.
This selestion doesn’t make sense. I guess they feel Ellen will draw the viewers in since they know they are going to lose a lot of them now that Paula is gone. I’d rather they’d kept Victoria Beckham around over Ellen.
Agree w/nanster. But sure would be nice if she had some background in the music industry….
I agree, Wow. I’m no fan of Beckham, but at least she did spend some time in the music industry, so I would assume she is a little more qualified to be a judge than Degeneres.
Ellen was truly awful on Dancing With the Stars. She was way out of her element and her comments were inane. She is not funny, she tries too hard and she can’t act her way out of a paper bag so she won’t even be able to fake being any good on American Idol. The ratings will go south because of her, unless people only watch because it’s like going slowly by a bad car crash. You don’t really want to look but you can’t help yourself. There might be a head rolling around on the road. Who would want to miss that!?!
Aren’t there enough gays on Idol already??
Horrible choice. she’s boring as hell.
This week it’s Ellen, next week it’ll be someone else entirely.
I agree with you Popcorny!
Pass me that med bottle!
As much as I like Ellen, I don’t think she’s a good mix for AI. I’ll wait to see how she does, but I haven’t watched since they added that other woman.
I think Paula destroyed her chances when she said whatever it was on Twitter, and the AI powers that be jumped on it to let her go – due to all the controversy over her seeming drugged or drunk.