The depressing news that Ellen DeGeneres has been hired to weigh down American Idol as the new fourth judge is the only proof we need that the show is cooked, done and over and a satire unto itself.

Idol doesn't need a flippant fourth judge to muck up the feedback.  Four judges didn't work last season and now that Paula is thankfully out, the remaining three could get back to the business of making musicians.

Unfortunately, with the addition of Ellen, everyone must now confess Idol isn't about music or singing:  It's about mocking the notion of our American culture that talent is equal to instant fame when it is not. 

Ellen will now bore us with her silly jokes as the rest of the show withers under the additional burden of having to laugh in the midst of our constant groaning.

In interviews with the current American Idol judges, they all later up Ellen as their "friend" while leaving the notion that she has any talent whatsoever to judge a singing show wholly unaddressed.

American Idol's decline is on the ascension.  It won't be pretty or entertaining to watch the slow death of a former 800-pound gorilla.