Jury is mixed on how DeGeneres has fit into the club. By Gil Kaufman Ellen DeGeneres and Randy Jackson Photo: FOX As anyone who has switched high schools mid-year can tell you, it’s never easy fitting in with the cool kids. Midway through her first season on “American Idol,” talk-show host/ comedian Ellen DeGeneres hasn’t tripped and dropped her lunch tray in front of the whole school yet, but she also hasn’t exactly gotten the lead in the school production of “Grease,” according to our panel of experts. DeGeneres was ostensibly brought in to add a touch of humor to the judges’ table following the departure of judge Paula Abdul. But our “Idol” watchers said she was also tapped to beef up the panel before Simon Cowell’s departure, which became an eventuality before Ellen even had a chance to warm up her seat. And while she hasn’t set the show on fire, she’s made her presence felt with some patented wacky metaphors (see “ripe banana”) and her signature “I really like you” compliments. “Ellen started off strong in Hollywood Week,” said MTV News “Idol” aficionado Jim Cantiello. “As a die-hard ‘Idol’ fan, I was relieved that she took the job so seriously. … Ellen was into it. She kept her comic shtick to a minimum. It appeared she had a nice balance between Paula’s compassion and Simon’s acerbic wit. I was stoked.” Once the live shows started, though, Cantiello said DeGeneres’ critiques turned into endless run-on sentences, and the bad reviews almost always ended with “but I like you!” or “you’re adorable!” “I guess she was trying to cushion the blow, but it just clouded her criticism,” he said, lamenting that DeGeneres’ hug for Tim Urban after his cover of “Hallelujah” probably helped the iffy singer solidify a spot in the top 12. Bob Thompson, professor of television and popular culture of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse and an avid “Idol” watcher since day one, said he could sum up his feelings on DeGeneres in one word: disappointment. “Ellen is a very talented comic presence,” he said. “I’ve seen her do stand-up, and she’s really good at off-the-cuff stuff on her talk show. When I first heard she was becoming a judge, I thought two things: What credibility does Ellen DeGeneres have in judging future music stars? And, besides that massive gap in her r
