Ellen Named Idol Judge: Yay or Nay?

Ellen DeGeneres, kisses then girlfriend, now wifey, Portia de Rossi after winning the award for outstanding talk show host for "The Ellen Degeneres Show" at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Friday, June 20, 2008 (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

In many ways, Ellen is a great choice. She is obviously comfortable on camera, doesn't have a big ego (or, at least, never comes across as having one), and, as she says in those quotes (and as is clear if you watch her talk show), she loves "Idol" and understands how it works.

And her relentless enthusiasm makes her not only an ideal replacement for Paula, but an improvement. Easy as it was to make fun of her, Paula filled a valuable role on that show by providing a brief safe zone for the overstressed contestants; Ellen will be able to do the same while being vastly more coherent.

On the downside, she's much less likely to provide the kind of entertaining Paula-esque spaz-outs that tended to liven up the really boring episodes, but she'll provide enough intentional comedy to offset Paula's accidental comedy (like that one episode where she traveled through time).

The big problem with hiring Ellen has less to do with Ellen than with the continued presence of Kara Dio Guardi, whose contract was re-upped right before Paula's contract re-negotiations fell apart.

We learned last season that four judges is one too many. The producers were unable or unwilling to get each of the judges to talk a little less, so shows ran long, until, having failed to cut back on the judges or the guest stars or the clip reels, they had to start cutting out performances, and that's unacceptable on a show that's far too padded as is.

Kara, it seemed, tended to talk the most because she wanted to justify her hiring in the first place. As an established star - Simon Cowell is probably still the biggest name on the panel, but now at least an argument could be made for someone else - Ellen might feel confident enough in her own status to only talk as much as necessary. Or she might feel the need to assert her dominance over the panel, and that could be both time-consuming and awkward.

Take Kara - and/or the equally useless Randy Jackson - out of the mix, and this probably all sorts itself out nicely by the end of the semi-final round.

Leave four judges in there, and make one of them an incredibly high-profile newbie, and this has the potential to be awkward for at least half a season, if not more.

Ellen's a fine hire. She's just one hire too many.

- Alan Sepinwall

I'd rather Ellen be on the show, than an empty seat to stare at and think of Paula.

It will be interesting to see her comedy spices up the show, although that could be achieved simply by firing Kara.