After months of "Idol" speculation, we get our first glimpse of the newest judge,
Ellen DeGeneres, as Hollywood Week, and the annual culling of the herd, commences Tuesday night. And, like fans of the show everywhere, we're wondering: Is Ellen too nice? And can "Idol" support two megastars?
Ellen might indeed be nice, but recent reports of her complaints about Simon's "prima donna" ways indicate that she's not afraid to take on the king of nastiness. And after a career of huge highs and precipitous falls, she's more than equipped to handle whatever the show, or Simon, or hordes of teary, warbly teenagers throw her way.
WATCH Simon Cowell's visit to Ellen's talk show for clues about how their "nice vs. nasty" dynamic could play out this season.Many years ago, there was a show called "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson — quite apart and significantly more influential than today's "The Tonight Show" with [insert name here]. So those of you under 30 will have to take our word for it: when Ellen appeared on the show in 1986 as a stand-up and was asked by Johnny to talk after her set, it was a really big deal.
Ellen's career was launched as other stand-ups were getting their own sitcoms (Roseanne, Jerry Seinfeld), but it was almost 10 years of random gigs in television and movies before ABC green-lit "Ellen" (and they wouldn't even call it "Ellen" at first; it was "These Friends of Mine"). The show was in most respects what any network could ask for: consistent. If it was never a Top 10 hit or particularly groundbreaking, neither was it troublesome for the family oriented network of "Full House" and "Boy Meets World."
Of course, as we know, it didn't stay that way. Tabloids had for years hounded Ellen about her sexuality, a more or less open secret within the comic community, but certainly not something she'd spoken of publicly. In 1997 Ellen confirmed what everyone really knew anyway, and strangely enough the world didn't end. The problems arose when Ellen the character came out of the closet as well.
With Ellen DeGeneres joining "American Idol," is America ready to crown a gay winner? [Poll]
It must have seemed like a great idea, but the execution was poor. After a clever and interesting start ("The Puppy Episode"), the show lagged. Whether or not it became "too gay," as some critics would charge, it just wasn't funny, and ABC allowed the show to wither another year before it dropped the ax.
Then... nothing. It's one thing to patiently pay your dues while awaiting your big break; it's quite another to be on top and fall into oblivion, and it had to be terrifying. For about four years Ellen threw herself back into stand-up, where she had complete control over content and delivery. In 2001 she appeared in a short-lived CBS sitcom, but her real return to the public eye was as host of the Emmy Awards that November.
After much network hemming and hawing about the appropriateness of hosting a silly awards show so soon after the September 11 attacks, Ellen immediately relieved any tension or misgivings with a routine that seemed to effortlessly flow with the tone of the moment, most memorably with the line: "What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?"
Following a successful HBO special, Ellen reemerged with "The
Ellen DeGeneres Show," her current syndicated talk show. It's easy to forget, in light of its success, both critically and ratings-wise, that even after a strong Emmy Awards showing the talk show was a gamble. No one knew whether Americans would really accept a gay person (and not a flouncy gay character but an actual gay person!) in their living rooms every day. But it was a great format for Ellen, whose comedy was always more observational than personal-life oriented, and her daytime audiences loved her gentle teasing and playfulness. We'll see if prime-time "Idol" fans feel the same way tonight.
—Christine Lusey, Amos Content Group
