Paula Abdul has a successor.
Ellen DeGeneres will be filling that empty fourth chair at the
judges' table on the upcoming ninth season of American Idol.
And none of that one-and-done, guest-judging stuff for
her—DeGeneres is coming onboard for the duration.
"I'm thrilled to be the new judge on American Idol," the Daytime
Emmy-winning talk show host said in a statement.
"I've watched since the beginning, and I've always been a huge fan.
So getting this job is a dream come true, and think of all the
money I'll save from not having to text in my vote."
Hey, we thought dancing was her thing, but this works, too.
DeGeneres will be joining Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy
Jackson once the audition rounds—with its oodles of special
celebrity appearances—are over.
DeGeneres, of course, is replacing Abdul, who announced her
departure after eight years following a round or two of ultimately
fruitless contract negotiations.
The veteran pop star was reportedly ticked off because Simon Cowell
and Ryan Seacrest's salaries far surpassed her own.
But we're thinking that DeGeneres, who has hosted the Oscars and
the Emmys and did some good work as a guest judge on So You Think
You can Dance last season, has got to be making fat bank for this
gig.
"I'm not leaving here, don't worry about that," the 51-year-old
chatterbox reassured her audience when she made the announcement
during a taping of Ellen.
"I'm gonna have a day job and a night job. The times we're living
in, we're all doing that."
And in case you were questioning her music-biz credentials...
"I don't know how it happened myself," she said. "I have not missed
one episode of that show, I have 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 sit at home and I watch it...I'm not looking at it in a
critical way, from the music producer's mind. I'm looking at it as
a person who's going to buy the music, and who's going to relate to
that person.
"So I'm hopefully going to be the voice of what we're all doing at
home."
(Originally published Sept. 9, 2009, at 5:24 p.m. PT)
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