Simon Cowell is going to leave American Idol at the end of the this season. This saw one American (on Twitter) breathing a sigh of relief and thankful to see the back of "that type of format". The bad news for them is that he's leaving Idol because he's struck a deal to take The X Factor to Fox.

Cowell's stint on the show has seen him make household names Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson... and now, he's set to make more famous people (and a bundle of cash) with an American version of X Factor due to air in time for the 2011 season.

Damn. There's going to be one helluva light show in the American version.

"We reached an agreement formally this morning," Cowell said at a press conference in Los Angeles yesterday. "What we have agreed is that The X Factor will launch in America in 2011 with me judging the show and executive producing. Because of that, this will be my last season on American Idol this year.

"I was offered a lot of money to stay on but that wasn't the reason behind it. I wanted to do something different. I wanted a new challenge."

Rumour has it that Cheryl Cole will be joining him in America to reprise her role as X Factor judge.

With Cowell keen to keep appearing on the UK version of The X Factor, as well as Britain's Got Talent, it seems that his stock will only continue to rise. And there's you thinking that X Factor was all-encompassing now! Ha! He's actually going to take over the world.

A spokesman for ITV said: "We are absolutely planning for The X Factor to return this autumn and next year with Simon Cowell in both an on-screen and production role."