Ellen DeGeneres replaces Abdul on American Idol

The US television equivalent of appointing a new Supreme Court judge was decided yesterday: Ellen DeGeneres, the comic who became one of the nation's most successful afternoon talk show hosts, not to mention one of the most high-profile openly lesbian entertainers in America, has been given the free judge's chair on American Idol. She replaces Paula Abdul, who quit the show a month ago over money.

The news from Fox TV took the industry by surprise - and has been received by most TV critics as a coup. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times said DeGeneres could even bring in viewers who aren't fans of American Idol. "I might even watch 'Idol' now," Lloyd tweeted on Wednesday.

DeGeneres herself, one of the most popular women on American television, announced the news simultaneously on her Twitter feed and during the taping of her daytime talk show. "This is so exciting for me," she said. "We've been dealing with this for the last couple of weeks and I've been dying to tell everyone. It's just been so hard to keep it a secret and we just finally got the OK.

"I don't know how it happened myself," she went on, "but I have not missed one episode of that show. I've watched every single thing. I love everything about it and I love music, as you know."

DeGeneres will join Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson on the panel when the ninth season starts airing in January. The only question is whether she is too popular: Josef Adalian at thewrap.com suggested that "she's such a well-known personality, she could end up overwhelming the careful chemistry on the judging panel".

A more positive take is that she will make American's most watched television show for the past five successive years even more popular, bringing her own fan base with her. Whether she can win over the fans still smarting at Abdul's departure is another question.

DeGeneres lives in Los Angeles with the former Ally McBeal actress Portia de Rossi (above, in red dress). They married in August last year shortly before gay marriages were again outlawed in California. ·