Ellen Degeneres finally ended her silence on why she left American Idol on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS FM radio show this morning. Also, Ryan says an announcement about the judges’ panel will be made “very soon”. He says they are due to leave for auditions “the 25th or the 26th.” So, maybe they’ll start the judges’ round in LA next week right after the cattle call…
Listen to the full interview here
Here are Ellen’s thoughts on leaving Idol:
“It was fun and I really enjoyed the moments that we had, but it was a really hard thing for me to do for many reasons. I just think these kids are really taking it so seriously for me to make a joke every single time when…what they’re really waiting for is constructive criticism–not true, honest criticism. They want to be praised, and I found it really difficult to watch them have their dreams shattered on national television.
I couldn’t make a joke every time. If I made a joke that was not directed at them, like, with the bagpipe guy getting separated from the parade–when something like that comes up, that’s fun for me–that’s just a funny thing not directed at them. But it was just hard. I didn’t want to walk that line.”
Ellen says the very first day was a tough day. “It was a reality check for me to go–oh wow, this is a whole different machine over here….and I learned the very first day that Simon quit. ” Ellen wondered, “How does this work now? I thought he was there for awhile, and I thought we were going to play around and have fun because his persona is one way, and mine’s another…we never really got to do that.”
Ellen had trouble adjusting, “My show is run in a very singular way, and it’s my show, and I went over there and it was a lot of different components.”
“This is not just television, ” says Ellen “[the contestants are] really really thinking their lives are going to change right now, and my words are going to matter..and I was like ‘Oh, this is hard!'”
Ellen was also worried about balancing the auditions with her talk show’s production schedule.
I think Ellen both hates hurting people’s feeling, and being stuck in a situation that’s out of her control…
