Ellen DeGeneres named “permanent” judge on Idol

Just when you were thinking, the only way American Idol ever could replace Paula Abdul would be to find someone who is deliberately funny, well, they did done gone did that. Ellen DeGeneres announced the news last night during the taping of her daytime talk show that she had been named the new fourth judge on Idol. Click here for Ellen's Twitter announcement from last night, as well as the clip from Ellen that'll air today.

DeGeneres is known for loving to dance, but is not a musical comedian. Does that matter? She said she hopes to be "the people's judge," which means we could be in for a lot of that-song-had-a-good-beat-I-could-dance-to-it quips, but hopefully not. I'm sure it'll get people to tune in. But isn't the whole point of the show to have the people be the ultimate judges by calling and texting millions of votes each week? I suppose if Ellen got an actual vote on who stayed and who left, then it'd be worth debating in more detail. Instead, I'll just post some related videos for you.

Here's one from TMZ (of all places), trying to act like actual investigators by digging up this clip of Ellen chatting with Idol's Simon Cowell in May about the prospect of job openings on the judging panel.

And here's a clip from back in the day of Ellen singing on her old sitcom. (via Dlisted)

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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6 thoughts on “Ellen DeGeneres named “permanent” judge on Idol

  1. I’ve gotta say I’m not crazy about this. As a fan of comedy and Ellen, and a watcher (but not fan, necessarily) of Idol, I don’t think she’s doing herself any favors by dropping into that viper’s nest. But who knows. Maybe she can raise it up a little.

  2. Ellen would be a great replacement for PA…the labels suing her is just another sign of the times…its so tough for labels to make money that they are suing everyone who uses music without paperwork…

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