American Idol Season Nine Judges & Host, Ryan Seacrest (center)

With many of our favorite shows coming to an end we have to wonder, what’s next on the plate for American Idol? ‘Law & Order’, ‘LOST’ and ’24′ have all had their departures announced from television but this year’s season finale of American Idol was treated more like an actual series finale than anything. The core of the show, Simon Cowell, said his goodbyes on Wednesday night bringing tears of joy and sadness to viewers all over the country.

The outspoken British talent of the show was treated to a tearful goodbye from past contestants and if many viewers looked hard enough, they may have caught a glimmer in Cowell’s eye as well. Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and other past winners gathered up and paid tribute to the man who brought us entertainment year after year since the show’s beginning in 2002. The norotious music critic himself said that he was unsure who would replace him but knew that the audience, the viewers and the voters would be the best judges of anyone on the infamous panel.

Questions remain over who, if anyone at all, will replace Simon Cowell at the judging table in the next season of American Idol but some fans, including recently added judge and music professional, Kara DioGuardi, hope that the table doesn’t shrink down to three and stay that way. The audience of the reality show is left to wonder what will happen next and rightfully so.

There has been no reason to believe that Simon Cowell is being replaced due to the lackluster and mainly fictitious rumors of celebrities like Madonna and Howard Stern entering the ranks. And now that Paul Abdul has left the show and turned to the new CBS reality series, ‘Got To Dance’, there is no hope of her hopeful comments and praise returning.

One thing is for sure though, the American Idol send-off for Simon Cowell was emotional, star-studded and showed America a soft side of the British critic we’ve never seen. Audiences far and wide laughed, cried and pondered what would happen next for the show. For now, however, all we can do is cheer on the contestants of the past and future seasons, including this year’s winner, Lee DeWyze.

His crowning was the number one show on television that evening and this news alone let’s many hopeful American Idol die-hards see that American Idol may not be broken for good after all. Only time will tell about the uncertain future of a show whose viewer base will thin with the departure of Simon Cowell.