American Idol Shake-Up Exclusive

Following last year’s continued ratings slump, American Idol is experiencing more shake-ups than J-Lo’s booty in last week’s earthquake.

Apparently Simon Cowell is miserable working on the show, so he’s being paid a TON to stay. If it weren’t for the paycheck and Cowell had his druthers, he’d quit, take time off and bring his UK hit X-Factor (the show that discovered singing sensation Leona Lewis) to America.

While the show believes they can’t lose Cowell, they were willing to throw a few other Idol veterans overboard.

Despite reports that executive producer Nigel Lythgoe quit, the truth is, according to one very well-placed source, he was fired, along with another executive producer and the director, both of whom had been with the show since its inception — a decision that came as a huge surprise for everyone. That’s a pretty brutal way to try to keep the show relevant.

Expect to see some major changes as the new season of Idol returns to Fox in January 2009.