Rumor has it that our beloved sarcastic American Idol British judge Simon Cowell IS seriously considering or planning to leave American Idol after Season 9 ends. News is traveling fast across the internet that yes.., Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol after all, to focus his time and energies on launching the American version of X Factor.

Surprised? Not me.

I told you Simon Cowell is planning to leave Idol after next season’s Season 9 of American Idol ends months ago. We had to say goodbye to Paula Abdul and now it looks like Idol fans are also losing Cowell as well.

Remember, Simon Cowell’s contract ends in May 2010. If you recall, Simon Cowell was said to have plans to leave American Idol when he turns 50 years old. Simon Cowell is now 50 years old, since Simon’s 50th birthday bash was held two months ago.

Times of London is reporting that Simon Cowell is preparing to make an announcement about a new arrangement with Fox, where the U.S. version of X Factor will air in 2011, and his plans to leave American Idol.

“He is considering standing down as presenter of American Idol, which appears on the Fox network in the US, after its next season. The X Factor is due to begin filming in Los Angeles in September 2011, to be shown on Fox and presented by Cowell.

Cowell is currently paid about £22million a year by Fox to act as a judge on American Idol, which is owned by Cowell’s fellow music and TV producer Simon Fuller. For the past five years it has been the most successful TV show in America.

The filming schedule means that Cowell will be able to front at least one more series of The X Factor in Britain.

Negotiations with ITV are expected to conclude soon, people close to the deal said. Cowell has said that his loyalty is with ITV but wants it to pump money into The X Factor.

If Cowell switches from American Idol to presenting The X Factor in America, it would mark the end of his long commercial relationship with Fuller, the former Spice Girls producer.”

Cowell told a BBC interviewer that he definitely plans to launch the show (X Factor) in the US. “It has to go to America. There has to be an American version of the show,” he said. “To not take ‘The X Factor’ to the biggest market in the world would be crazy.”

One can only speculate about the reasons why Ellen DeGeneres was brought in as the new fourth judge, but with Simon Cowell apparently leaving Idol, what’s the point of hiring a new judge? Tick, Tick, Tick goes the time bomb perhaps?

What will happen to the American Idol show is yet to be determined, but do you hear the tick, tick, ticking of the time bomb yet? Will you stick around to watch American Idol with Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul both gone? Rumor has it that if Simon Cowell leaves American Idol for sure, instead of the regular teasing of staying vs. leaving, Idol will cease to exist in no time flat.

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