It wasn't easy for Ellen DeGeneres to fight her way into our collective hearts, but now that she is in, we wonder why it took so long. Armed with a sharp comedic wit and gentle charm, she is poised to replace two of the biggest icons in television with barely a ripple.
She will be joining American Idol's judging table at 8 p.m. today for the final lap of superstar arbiter Simon Cowell. And Oprah Winfrey has all but handed her the mantle of the goddess of daytime television via a rare, two-person cover on O magazine.
At first, even Fox TV executives seemed a little mystified by their good fortune when DeGeneres agreed to take a departing Paula Abdul's place on American Idol.
She was everything Abdul was not. Sharp. Dependable. Free from ego and head trips. Yet DeGeneres was experienced enough to take on Cowell, funny enough to promise a crackling judges' table and beloved enough that many overlooked the oddity of having someone with no music-business experience help pick the country's biggest pop-music star.
"We were, frankly, surprised at the enthusiasm in replacing Paula when we first started our conversations with Ellen," said Peter Rice, the chairman of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting, in January. Ellen "can have a wonderful sort of injection of energy into a format that's beloved and works around the world."
Translated from execu-speak: America loves Ellen, so we love her, too.
This is hardly the fate that anyone would have predicted 10 years ago. Her groundbreaking, but inconsistent, ABC sitcom Ellen had just imploded, undone by the decision to have its star and lead character come out as lesbians at the same time when few in Hollywood knew exactly how they felt about the whole gay thing.
Her first step in earning adoration came from a decision made years ago: Rather than be an advocate, she was going to lead by example.
"I just want to be funny again," she told critics in 2001, two years after the messy death of Ellen. "I've learned that it's really hard to do a sitcom and do important political issues. I thought I could do it, and I thought it was something that was important to do. But I think people just want to turn on their TV set and laugh."
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