Simon Cowell on American Idol 8: "There's Going to Be a Big Shake-Up... You'll See."

British TV mogul Simon Fuller is the real winner of American Idol (Times Online)

But the expats have a difficult job ahead of them for next season. For most of the show's run this year ratings were off by about 10 per cent.

This was blamed on the aftermath of the writers' strike, which drove viewers away from television, and results from the Democratic Party's primary race, which came in on Tuesday nights at the same time that American Idol was on the air.

Critics complained of being bored with the format and Paula Abdul, one of the judges, made a gaffe when she gave her verdict on a contestant before he sang, revealing that her notes had been scripted in advance.

The show staged a recovery for the finals. On Tuesday, when the contestants gave their last performances, ratings were up 7 per cent on 2007, to 27 million.

The following night, when the results were revealed, the ratings were up 4.5 per cent, to 26.5 million, according to preliminary data. But executives were clearly rattled.

At the party on Wednesday Mr Fuller promised radical changes for next season, with rumours suggesting that a fourth judge would be hired to join Mr Cowell, Ms Abdul and Randy Jackson.

“There's going to be a big shake-up,” confirmed Mr Cowell, who spent most of Wednesday evening with the $12.5 million-a-year host of Idol, Ryan Seacrest. “You'll see.”

It's never to early to speculate about next season's American Idol!