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Can Ellen replace another American Idol judge too?
by Kona Gallagher, posted Sep 10th 2009 4:28PM
If the news that Ellen DeGeneres was going to become a judge on American Idol had broken a year ago, I would have been totally psyched. Hopefully she would replace Paula, and bring some much-needed humor to the show (humor that isn't mean-spirited or allegedly pill-addled, that is). But now that Ellen will be the new fourth judge on Idol, the news comes as somewhat as a disappointment.I've been a huge fan of Ellen since her stand-up days, so I'm all for her showing up anywhere. I also think her purpose of bringing a "fan's perspective" to the show is a good idea on the producers' part. But does Paula need to be the only judge Ellen replaces?
Last season's problem was not Paula Abdul. The addition of Kara DioGuardi as fourth judge really seemed to make Paula step her game up. Instead of giving the contestants nothing but useless, nonsensical platitudes involving inner beauty and butterflies, she straight up gave them sound musical advice-- the kind of which Randy used to give. She tried to be more constructive and helpful, and as a result, her and Simon's comments are the only ones I remember from helping to cover Idol last season.
Randy Jackson used to be a good bridge between Simon's harshness and Paula's relentless warm fuzzies. Lately, however, he's become nothing more than an empty catch-phrase machine: every single Dawg is "pitchy" no matter what the song or pitch in which it was sung.
Kara, on the other hand, had an attitude of "please, I could do better than this," which made many of her comments very awkward. You don't need to look any further than her sing-off with Bikini Girl in the auditions to see an embarrassing example of how Kara seemed to think she was on the wrong side of the table. Plus, the final song that she wrote for Kris and Adam was unforgivable. UNFORGIVABLE.
American Idol's real issue from last season though, wasn't any of these individiuals: it was the fact that the show simply does not need four judges. They need a tiebreaker; they don't need four people spouting on and on, making the show go over and screwing up everybody's DVRs. They don't need the judges to combine their critiques, making it so we don't even hear from half of them.
So while naming Ellen a judge on American Idol is a good idea, it would become a great idea if they get rid of either Kara or Randy. If Paula can't be on, then it should be Simon, Ellen and a third. The fourth chair should just remain empty.
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