A few days after Tony Cowell broadcasted that brother Simon Cowell will leave American Idol after season 9, Fox channel is near finalization of extending the contract of the popular program by three or more years after the current contract expires 2011.

Simon Cowell was reported to be leaving the show in preparation for the premier of his British television production The X Factor in American television in 2011. It is this program where Leona Lewis was discovered.

Fox has previously offered to broadcast The X Factor in exchange that Simon will continue judging American Idol for the tenth and eleventh seasons. Another compromise is to let Cowell not to do all the jobs of being a judge like not participating during the auditions but present starting Hollywood phase.

The public will wait for further developments. Meanwhile, Simon and business partner Philip Green have announced that The X Factor will be a live event from Las Vegas and would be stream as a global pay-per-view event over the Internet.