New “American Idol” judge Ellen says Simon is “actually meaner than I thought”

I think a lot of American Idol fans would love to see Simon Cowell taken down a peg or two and new judge Ellen DeGeneres might be just the person to do it!

During a recent photo shoot with Simon, fellow judges Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi, and host Ryan Seacrest, Ellen said: “I had one idea of Simon when I came in, and it’s changed. He’s actually meaner than I thought. … It’s hard to listen to him tell people things and me not to go, ‘You poor thing!'”

Ellen plans to be more diplomatic than the blunt Mr. Cowell: “I’m getting good at delivering bad news, myself, but I’m trying to do it in a tender way. … I hate hurting people’s feelings, so that, I think, is the hardest part.”

Ellen, whose debut as a judge is on the Feb. 9 said of this year’s contestants:  “I think we have good people … I’m going to fight very, very hard to keep the people that I believe in, so that we have a wide variety … somebody for everybody, I hope.”