Well folks, the Ellen DeGeneres era on American Idol is, thankfully, over.

The stand-up comic and daytime talk host was out of her area of strength on Idol, and her departure will hopefully mean that Fox will have a judge panel next season who all have music backgrounds. That was the biggest and most legitimate critique of DeGeneres – her lack of a music industry background.

Personally, I’d love to see Ellen join the judges panel of the next season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing; she’d immediately become the top judge and draw of the show, and has way more credibility and humor than any of this season’s judges. The woman knows comedy, not music, and could help make Last Comic Standing a way more legitimate show.

That aside, it’s a relief to have her off Idol, where she was outside her area of expertise.

Now to the rumor mill: word is (and no, I have no security cameras at Fox) that Idol has come to terms already with Jennifer Lopez as Ellen’s replacement. Huge improvement; while J-Lo needs an image boost after being dumped by her record label and her latest movie bombing, she’s an ideal Idol judge due to being a legit pop star – just as Paula Abdul was.

Simon’s replacement is still in the works; I’d love to hear that Apprentice winner Bret Michaels is the choice, although the rumor mill has Steven Tyler as more likely. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if it was Nigel Lythgow himself, who is returning to Idol after a couple seasons as just on So You Think You Can Dance.

The remaining questions are these: will Fox retain Kara DioGuardi as a fourth judge? The word is, she’s already been told she won’t be returning, and her deal was a year-to-year contract.

The bigger question is whether Fox will retain Randy Jackson as a connection to Idol’s past, or if they want to clean house and start fresh. Hard to say.

Personally, I’d love to see Idol free up Randy; that way, when Simon Cowell’s X-Factor debuts in 2011, he could potentially re-team with both Paula and Randy, reuniting the original three-judge panel that worked so well for years on Idol.

Now if only we knew when Ryan Seacrest’s contract was up, and whether he’d consider re-teaming with Cowell on X-Factor, or if CNN is in his future instead.