Speculation I heard re: Simon Cowell's "last season" of American Idol is that he's trying to convert it to an American X-Factor.
American Idol is a spin off of the UK Pop Idol. After Pop Idol, Cowell went out on his own and created X-Factor which is basically the same, with judges mentoring the hopefuls. The speculation is that Cowell is shopping X-Factor and rather than let Cowell go to another network, Fox will kill Idol and revamp Idol into an American X-Factor.
Mop