Simon: "I thought Cheryl was bright, cute and ambitious"

In what might possibly be the most protracted period of waiting for confirmation ever, Simon's gone and as good as admitted that Cheryl will be a judge on US X Factor. Even better though, he's said some genuinely touching things about Cheryl, sharing his admiration for the girl we've all fallen in love with.

Speaking about the judging role in an interview with Deadline, he said: "I never think about it as an American or British audience. I genuinely don't. I think that's what's happened on a lot of these shows now is it's almost like you've got to hire well known celebrities to be a judge.

"And with Cheryl, when I hired her initially, I'd only met her literally once when I offered her the job on UK X Factor. I thought she was bright, cute, knew what she was talking about, ambitious..."

Awwww!

Simon continued: "And you meet someone special a few times in your life... and this girl is special. She's just got a great ability to communicate. She's a great judge. She's smart. It's just a hunch."

How adorable!

"If people take to her like the British public did, I think she's going to do really well in America. And Fox was desperate to hire her."

It's really moving to see Simon speak so candidly about Cheryl like this - on the UK live shows we often only got their feisty banter and Simon's usual hard-man act, so moments of open emotion like this are really sweet. He clearly believes a lot in her potential for winning over American audiences in the same way she did over here, and you know what, I think she's more than got it in her to do it. Exciting times indeed!