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Here's some exciting news for fans of the sadistic exploitation of shameless, fame-hungry minors: American Idol has been renewed well into the next decade! After a nail-biting "will he or will he?" episode involving a legal dispute, ill-fitting-muscle-shirt-wearer Simon Cowell has signed on for another five seasons, with no word yet on the involvement of the show's other standbys, narcotized, differently abled clapper Paula Abdul, "A'ight" aficionado Randy Jackson, or recently crowned Carnaval Queen/Idol host Ryan Seacrest.

CKX owns 19 Entertainment, the British creator of the wannabe-celebrity series Idol. The company said it reached a joint agreement with producer FremantleMedia, Fox, Idol celebrity judge Simon Cowell and record label Sony BMG to continue the series for four more seasons with an option to renew for an additional two seasons.

Cowell has agreed to stay on for at least five more seasons beginning with the next installment of the series in January.

The mind dances at the thought of five more Idols, to say nothing of their five sexually ambiguous runners-up; it's a bounty of talent that should more than satisfy the show's one-Idol-per-radio-format quota. If all goes according to plan, this year's finals should pit 26 year old Lowell Vigwald, a deathmetal enthusiast from Armada, Michigan, against contemporary Christian songstylist SueAnn Duprey, 19, of Clinton, Nebraska. May the most inoffensive, Soundscan-friendly vocal powerhouse win.