Ellen DeGeneres: American Idol Debut Review

Call me a hater, but Ellen DeGeneres sucked on American Idol last night. Ellen is getting good reviews thus far, but Ellen being praised for her judging on American Idol reminds me of Sarah Palin debating Joe Biden. Sarah made it through the debate, therefore people exclaimed that she "did GOOD!"

Ellen did great considering the circumstances: Big a*s ego to her right, bright a*s lights above her head, Kara DioGuardi on her left, and dozens of contestants sitting behind her or singing in front of her trying to earn her approval.

She was "funny" at times when the show desperately needed some comedic relief; but the reason why DeGeneres was unable to shine was because she is out of her element!

Ellen said: "I'll tell you one thing, when people say, 'What do you know about music?' I'll tell you what I do know. I do know what it's like to stand on stage and try to please an entire room full of people. That is a hard thing to do." That intro was brilliant.  But as the episode continued, Ellen became virtually mute. You could also tell that there is tension between Ellen and Simon Cowell. When Ellen told a contestant that his performance was "dull," Simon then asked her, "So did you like it?" which was really rude and annoyed Ellen.

Ellen seemed out of place and tired. Poor thing. She was great at tallying votes, she's like a human calculator; but Ellen is brilliant - a total genius of wit. Unfortunately she's not in the proper forum to do what she does best and she's definitely not the best candidate to be critiquing music, either. Telling a contestant that he is "stalking" the judges because he's intense has sh*t to do with vocals and saying so is kind of a waste of camera time.

Ellen may get much better, and last night's Idol was her very first episode. I'm cutting her some slack, I am. It's just that Degeneres' debut performance did not justify why she's on the panel other than Idol execs want to pull in anyone they can to spike the show's decreasing ratings. It is so time for Howard Stern, baby!