To be honest i think there is truth in this, the ratings actually picked up this season, but it's true America love Simon Cowell there is no X Factor without him and he mentioned late last year that he would be returning to the UK X Factor after Gary Barlow decided to leave! The UK X Factor is always going to be the main priority it has produced Global stars, the plan for 2014 was to bring back it's most succesful panal which was Dannii Minogue, Cheryl Cole, Louie and Simon so ratings would shoot to an all time high, they did this with Sharon and it worked! The main reason for this is to keep producing Global talent as a lot of these shows are failing to do that now and X Factor UK is still reigning as far as that goes. X Factor is to young in America to not have Simon on the panal so i understand Foxes decision