Degeneres Thing To Do?

It's official: Ellen DeGeneres is on Idol, in place of notoriously... entertaining judge Paula Abdul. It's official: I'm gonna need an Aspirin (wonder if I still have that half bottle of Vicadin from spinal rehab...?)




Wait, who?

Ellen DeGeneres is a comedian who starred in the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine, running from 94' to '98. Since the mid-2000's, she's hosted The Ellen DeGeneres show, an afternoon talk/variety show, which gets the first Ripe Thoughts Just Conceived Medal of Awesomeness, on grounds of being extremely awesomely funny and...ripe, I guess. It's my blog, and I have a constitutional right to award awards for no reason whatsoever.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, Ellen. She's also an activist for animal rights and LBGT rights, as well as a frequent supporter of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. In short, she's a pretty awesome person. And now, she's a judge on American Idol.

Wait, what?

You know American Idol, the multi-million dollar cash-cow ratings-grabber?* Well, even though it's still a ratings juggernaut, its ratings are quickly going down the can. It was clear, both in figures like these and public opinion.n, that American Idol didn't have the lifespan of a Twinkie. What do you do if your show is tanking? Introduce a fourth judge. Enter singer-songwriter-19 Entertainment-mouthpiece** Kara Dioguardi. Now, as generally offensive as this is about to sound, it's not my opion, bu what I believe was the opinion of the higher-ups.

Each judge filled a dynamic, a certain group. You had Simon, the mean guy. You had Randy, the African American guy, and you had Paula, the woman. As I said, not my personal opinion.

But, there's a problem here, if you're thinking like a producer. You now have two women. Add to that the fact that you were going over your broadcast time from all the 4 judges commenting, and you're in a pickle. So, someone had to go.

In August, Paula tweeted her resignation. A bit of initial shock ensued, but nobody was truly surprised.

You want surprise? Try Thursday, when Ellen announced on her show she'd be the new, permenant, FOURTH judge on American Idol. I'm mixed about this.

Wait, why?

It's not so much the fact that I'm opposed to Ellen being the fourth judge, it's that I'm opposed to there being a fourth judge.

First of all, the contestants have just over a minute each for the better part of the season to perform three-minute to four-minute songs, meaning they have to cut out most of the song as is. Last season, with four judges, the show would regularly run over its time 10-15 minutes, cumulating with the judges not being able to comment at all for the entire first half of the episode. This is a big problem, one that I'd hoped would be fixed with only three judges. (Simon, Randy, Kara.) Now, it may only get worse.

Secondly, on a more personal note, I'm worried about what this'll do to Ellen herself. One thing I like about Ellen is how she's an outsider, being famous but also having a homely feel to her, asking the questions we would ask, poking fun at the big coperate juggernaughts. You can't do this when you have a muzzle made out of big gobs o' money. Maybe I'm paranoid. We'll see.

Either way, let's have a little fun.... today.

Tomato

*Most hyphens ever?

**I take that back.