Fallen Idol

It's perhaps more surprising that Fox was still making American Idol than that they're cancelling the series.

It's going to limp to the end of its 15th season, and then vanish for good.

Dana Walden, co-chairman and CEO of the Fox Television Group, described it as a "pretty emotional decision" to end "American Idol."

"A pretty emotional decision" here means that, with audiences starting to drop below nine million, people were starting to feel the well-known emotion of 'look at that old warhorse cluttering up the schedules bringing down ratings lets stop paying the people on it the millions we're shelling out and make something cheaper that viewers might like more'.

The series hasn't really had a massive star-making role since, arguably, Jordin Sparks back in 2007.