American Idol has its new fourth judge -- popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Fox announced that the comedian and talk show host will join regular judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi for the upcoming season of the talent competition show when it resumes in January.
The announcement took many Idol fans by surprise, especially since DeGeneres has no formal music experience.
The announcement also will likely dash the hopes of Idol fans who hoped that eventually Paula Abdul would be brought back onto the show.
DeGeneres reportedly assured her talk show audience that she will not be abandoning her talk show, but would simply have "a day job and a night job."
There have been a series of judges taking turns in the fourth judge's seat while Fox sought a replacement for Abdul -- and since those judges had generally had strong musical backgrounds, it was generally expected that Abdul's permanent replacement would also emerge from the music industry.
"Hopefully, I'm the people's point of view because I'm just like you," DeGeneres said on her show. "I sit at home and I watch it, and I don't have that technical ... 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." Sphere: Related Content
Interesting choice.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is just what the show needs...a person who has no musical background, giving a somewhat unbiased view point....time will tell just how this will work.
By the way, I love Ellen, she's funny and VERY entertaining!!!!
Beth H. in Seattle