Paula who? Ellen DeGeneres will be fourth judge next season on “American Idol”

Any chance of Paula Abdul coming back to American Idol next season would seem to be dashed now because Fox has announced her replacement: Ellen DeGeneres!

Didn’t see this coming at all.

The move clearly signals that producers want a more entertaining sh0w since Ellen will surely bring her wonderful sense of hunor to the judging panel which will also consist of returnees Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Kara DioGuardi.

“Hopefully, I’m the people’s point of view because I’m just like you,” Ellen told her talk show audience in an episode scheduled to air Thursday. “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.”

Ellen said that she would not abandon 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.”

Well, sounds good toi me! Congrats to Ellen and to American Idol!