While interviewing “On The Floor” songstress/new American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez, Ellen DeGeneres brought up an aspect about the reality TV competition that seemed to be one of the problems she had with the show during her own stint as a judge in Season 9. “Sometimes they put people on purely for entertainment, which also sometimes is very cruel,” Ellen said. “Because there are people maybe that shouldn’t be there.” (Why, what ever does she mean?)

DeGeneres asked J.Lo if she had to walk the line when dealing with people showing up to the auditions who weren’t “mentally there.” But Lopez seemed to make light of the question and gave a pretty general answer.

Guess we’ll have to wait till she’s finished with the show for good (probably around six months from now) to get a real response.


American Idol’s latest season—complete with Lopez and fellow new judge Steven Tyler—kicks off tomorrow night (January 19). Will you be tuning in this time around?