Ellen DeGeneres Idol departure crashes Twitter – Jennifer Lopez next?

Twitter has crashed in the wake of Ellen DeGeneres’ announcement that she’s leaving her role as judge on American Idol. Ellen was atop the social network’s trending topics list at the time the trending list was disabled altogether, and then several minutes later the entire Twitter network was brought to its knees. This evening’s Twitter meltdown, the site’s first major burnup since the World Cup soccer tournament ended, likely cost Jennifer Lopez her opportunity to make it into the trending topics for what might have been the first time in the site’s four year history. Rampant rumors and gossip this evening have J.Lo taking Ellen’s place as the new “friendly” American Idol judge. The move would mark a return of a veteran musician to the judging chair vacated by Ellen, which had previously been occupied by Paula Abdul.

Twitter has since sporadically returned to life, but the trending topics list is still missing in action.