American Idol producers have finally settled on a replacement for Paula Abdul, and the result is surprising!Ellen DeGeneres revealed to studio audiences members at her talk show yesterday that she would be replacing Paula Abdul as the fourth judge. She also assured them that she would still be keeping her day job. Ellen will be joining fellow judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Kara DioGuardi. She will not be joining the show until the final rounds, after the audition and Hollywood rounds have been completed.
“American Idol†will be debuting in January on Fox on Dish Network, though a specific date has yet to be announced. Guest judges for the audition phase of the competition include Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry, and Joe Jonas.Thought this is a surprising choice (most assumed it would be someone from the music industry), I think Ellen is a great choice. The reason is because even though she is not a singer, she loves and appreciates music, and she will represent the “everyday viewer,†not to mention she's hilarious and I can only imagine her sparring with Simon or throwing some funny comments at the contestants.
“This is so exciting for me,†DeGeneres told the audience. “We've been dealing with this for the last couple of weeks and I've been dying to tell everyone. It's just been so hard to keep it a secret and we just finally got the okay and I'm so excited. It is going to be so much fun. I don't know how it happened myself but I have not missed one episode of that show. I've watched every single thing. I love everything about it and I love music, as you know. Hopefully I'm the people's point of view because I'm just like you…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. So I'm hopefully going to be that voice of what we're all doing at home.â€Anyone who watches the show knows that Paula Abdul was always the most sympathetic of the judges who could never bring it upon herself to be too harsh. I think Ellen will be a judge along the same lines. And although she won't be as cluelessly crazy as Abdul was sometimes, she will make up for it with her comedic edge.I for one am very excited about Ellen joining the judge's panel and I think it will add a new dynamic that the show needs if it wants to continue going strong for at least a few more seasons. It's important that they do not let the format grow stale, and this is definitely a step in the right direction.
By: Frank Bilotta
