Throng

8:30pm Friday, March 12 on TV2

Competition is down to the top 10 male and top 10 female vocalists, as the nail-biting semi-finals continue on American Idol.

As the top 20 Idols battle for their place in the finals, Ellen Degeneres has well and truly staked her place on the show, after making her first appearance during Hollywood Week. As she reveals to Entertainment Weekly, she was originally planning to join the hit show during the current semi-final stages, but changed her mind.

"I was going to wait until the live shows, but I thought it was better for me to know who these people are before then," Degeneres says.

Fellow judge and Idol stalwart Simon Cowell was surprised how much Degeneres knows about the prospective singers.

"Ellen actually knows more about the contestants that I do - because I forget everybody within about a week of doing the auditions," he jokes.

Degeneres is the only member of the panel without a background in the music industry, but she is adamant that her lack of musical experience won't hamper her evaluating capabilities.

"I've been on stage, alone, trying to entertain an audience for 15 years," she says. "I know how important it is to reach that audience, so I can put myself in their position. It's not necessarily singing, but it's keeping an audience captivated."

And Degeneres' honest, straight-talking judging style has surprised those who thought she'd play the clown on the show.

"If something's obnoxious or stupid, and there's a joke to be made, that's what I do first and foremost," the comedian says. "But there will also be true, honest critiquing."

However, she will stop short of Cowell's notoriously spiky comments.

"Simon really is, in my opinion, rude to people sometimes. So I think I'll be hard - but if he's rude, I'm going to let him know he's rude."

But there is one thing the fledgling judge will not put up with, and that's contestants talking back.

"It's unbelievable that people don't have any respect. They go on a show, they know they're going to get judged, and yet they tell you you're wrong," Degeneres says. "It's just rude and disrespectful, and not okay. So that's not going to happen on my watch."