I love Ellen DeGeneres; really, I do. She is awesome and I love watching her show but I just can’t see her as the fourth American Idol judge. She is funny, she does great interviews with celebs and she is a heck of a dancer, but that being said, I could sooner see her as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance than on American Idol. I have to wonder- why didn’t the powers that be pick upcoming guest host Neil Patrick Harris as a permanent judge?
Full disclosure: I have an enormous crush on Neil Patrick Harris. I first fell in love with NPH when I was a little girl watching him on Doogie Howser M.D. Now I can’t miss an episode of How I Met Your Mother: his Barney Stinson is one of the best characters on TV. I am not saying we should include him just because I like him; it’s that he is more qualified for the job. NPH is an accomplished singer and performer, having even appeared on Broadway. He has danced his way through Hollywood onto Sesame Street and all the way to the Tony’s– which, by the way, he hosted this year. He even stars in this phenomenally inventive web series, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, that my colleague Sid Lipsey recently turned me on to.
Now, you may be thinking, surely NPH is too busy to add yet another job to his plate, right? No! He is such an avid fan that he is at every taping of “American Idol”, in fact they often show him when they do their celebrity shots of the crowd. So why not take advantage of this great find sitting right under your nose?
What do you think- is Ellen the right fit? Would you have liked Neil Patrick Harris more? Do you have a completely different suggestion? Tell me what you think!