Ellen DeGeneres will be Paula Abdul‘s replacement on American Idol, Fox announced on Wednesday.
Ellen will join Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi as the fourth judge for season nine of Idol, which begins in January.
At a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show scheduled to air on Thursday, DeGeneres told the audience she will continue with her Emmy-winning show, but would have “a day job and a night job.”
“The times we’re living in,” she quipped, “we’re all doing that.”
“I have not missed one episode,” DeGeneres says of American Idol.
“Hopefully, I’m the people’s point of view because I’m just like you,” she said on her show. “I sit at home and I watch it, and I don’t have that technical … I’m not looking at it in a critical way from the producer’s mind. I’m looking at it as a person who is going to buy the music and is going to relate to that person.”
Paula Abdul abrubtly left American Idol in August, announcing her decision on Twitter.
Idol creator and executive producer Simon Fuller says, “Ellen has been a fan of the show for many years, and her love of music and understanding of the American public will bring a unique human touch to our judging panel.