I like her as a person, and have got used to her on the panel. I don't find her comments any less qualified than Simon's, in comparison to Kara and Randy. $imon's main skill is that of self-promotion, not musical taste or knowledge.

The thing about Ellen's quips are they are very US-specific, usually mentioning some obscure US character or household product. I manage to laugh along without needing to Google them though. At least the one about the hospital gown travels well.

I like Ellen and I find her funny, but she's pointless as a judge and as a result is becoming annoying. You were fantastic. I love your voice. I think you're great. That was a very good song choice. That was amazing. You are 'very' unique. That's her entire repertory of analysis.

She's actually wrong on a lot of her judgements. She doesn't recognise some of the best ones and congratulates some very out of tune, average appearances. She's really just bringing personal rather than professional opinion to the table and subjective flummery as opposed to objective analysis.

Her comments are vapid, non-analytical, they're not constructive in the sense that you can't learn anything by being told your flawed performance was amazing, they're not even phrased in original and interesting language. You might as well have the contestants' mums sitting there.

She was funny this week (I wonder if she maybe prepared a few lines in advance), but not as funny as Randy and Kara seem to think. If I were Ellen in that position, I'd actually be starting to find it a touch patronising. As a judge sh... sh... she... erm... she was... umm.... ummm.... pointless.

4 weeks of live shows n 2 prerecorded ones.. still not a fan.. sure a slight giggle here n there but if this is the sign of things to come.. ouch.. bye bye AI10 hello XFUS

I was all set to give her a chance, but after 4 weeks of live shows she doesn't seem to have improved yet. She stumbles over her words "I..I..I.. lov...loved it". I have never seen her on television before this so I don't know if she is always like that or if she is just nervous. It annoys me that they are paying someone to say 'you were great' or 'I like you'. Anyone could do that. Kara is by far the best judge.

I hate that they all start their comments with "What I loved about that was...."

I think they all need a new phrasebook this year. The same old comments for every act; "you connected with the song", "you didn't have a moment", "you were authentic/contemporary".

And Randy has reverted to his old ways, he was ok for the top 24 rounds, but now he's back to 'that was dope, dawg.'

I hope The X Factor really wipes the floor with Idol when it launches over there as it's just a much better produced show. Idol feels so dated and unambitious now, and still takes itself far too seriously (The X Factor seem to have given up trying to convince us it's anything more than a TV show!) - and the set lighting was so drab this week with cold blues for virtually every act.

And frankly, slotting Ellen into the panel has worked just about as well as slotting Jay Leno into primetime!