Look at this photo. Those were the ideal idol days. Simon would run down a contestant/auditioner and Paula would go apeshit in support of the poor person Simon would cut up with his words. However, American Idol is not the only pay cheque for Simon Cowell. After Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, all of America knows about the X-factor. This ninth season of the 'American Idol' will be last time Simon Cowell will head the famed judge panel, Simon has himself confirmed this.

Simon said two things: One, he was leaving the show to launch the American version of "The X-Factor", a singing talent competition. Two, he said, he did not want to leave Idol when it was at number 21 in the ratings.

I never wanted to walk out when the show was 21 in the ratings

Is Simon leaving because he wanted more control and was not happy with Idol main man Simon Fuller? The NYT thinks so.

The X Factor is just like American Idol - new singers compete for audience votes and get skewered by a panel of three judges.
The X Factor's American version will premiere fall 2011, then to the summer for subsequent seasons, while American Idol starts its downward roll in the winter/spring.

What people are asking: Will Simon Cowell's departure signal the end of America's most popular TV show of the noughties?
First, Idol lost the quirky but sweet Paula Abdul. Next year, it will lose its most important asset, Simon's caustic putdowns, which made the auditions so fun to watch, when Simon took on the weirdest America threw at him in his style. One waited, and the other two/three judges too, to hear what Simon would say.


Even the New York Times believes Simon gave idol its 'X-factor' so to speak.

the one thing it has that no other show has is Simon — which is to say someone as acerbic, blunt, honest, intelligent and, crucially, detached from the overriding sentimentality and vacuous ness of the proceedings as Simon.

That sentiment is echoed by the snarky Gawker, a savvy judge of what Americans watch, which says "American Idol RIP: June 2002 — May 2010"

However, The Entertainment Weekly thinks otherwise. It says there must be plenty of "smart, funny" and "telegenic" enough to "steal Simon's chair."
If Simon could rope someone like the Conan O' Brian, who is moving to Fox anyway, the X-factor might blow Idol away.

But read what the NYT says about the new judge,

(including two new women judges) the producers Fremantle Media and the Fox Network have gone bland (though Ms. DeGeneres does bland better than just about anyone). To keep going in that direction would be disastrous

What the New York Times did not mean was that after Simon, Idol will be reduced to a musical version of "The View".