Ellen DeGeneres is New American Idol Judge

We all know that Ellen DeGeneres likes to dance, but apparently she likes to judge singers as well. Ellen is set to join Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi on the judging panel for the number one show in the world. This pretty much eliminates any possibility of Paula Abdul returning, if one ever existed. Ellen will clearly bring some professional comic relief to the show, while probably providing some interesting insight as well.

All that said, this move seems eerily similar to the staff at Monday Night Football constantly searching for the right chemistry in the booth. They went through such duds as Dennis Miller and Tony Kornheiser before returning to an all-insider broadcast team. In much the same way, Ellen is a departure from Paula’s musical industry expertise and she may not be able to re-create the odd-but-successful chemistry that Paula brought to the show with Simon and Randy.

What Ellen will definitely bring, however, is a legion of fans that may not have already been viewers of American Idol. Now that Ellen will be on in primetime a few nights per week, she’ll bring a wave of new viewers to the show. Of course, there will be those that don’t like Ellen and may tune out as a result – but that number is surely insignificant in comparison to what Ellen will bring to the show.