Ellen Degeneres Joins American Idol

Ellen Degeneres

ELLEN DEGENERES will be the judge replacing PAULA ABDUL on "AMERICAN IDOL," reports THE NEW YORK POST, joining SIMON COWELL, RANDY JACKSON and KARA DIOGUARDI on the FOX TV show.

"I just finally got the OK ... just moments ago to announce this to you today," DEGENERES told her studio audience during YESTERDAY's taping of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," airing TODAY (9/10). "We've been dealing with this for the last couple of weeks and I've been dying to tell everyone."

PAULA ABDUL suprised fans and the industry when she announced last month (NET NEWS 8/5) that she was exiting "IDOL."

"I could not be more excited to have ELLEN join the 'AMERICAN IDOL' family," the show's creator/executive producer, SIMON FULLER, said in a statement.

DEGENERES, 51, will continue hosting her daytime talk show.

« see more Net News