POP IDOL judge Pete Waterman is to quit the show for a year.
The pop impresario said he thought the recent series, won by Michelle McManus, had not been as good as the original, in which Will Young triumphed.
Asked by Radio 5 Live's Simon Mayo if he would be back doing a "bit of Pop Idol", he replied: "Not this year, I've had enough for this year".
He said three years of "solid" television work had prompted the decision.
"I only went home five times last year, I just want a break this year," he said.
"I love Pop Idol, don't get me wrong, but I thought this year wasn't as good as the first."
Warrington resident Waterman, whose outspoken criticism of contestants has been a key feature of the shows, stormed off in disgust after 15-stone Michelle was crowned the nation's second Pop Idol in December.
Today the man who launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Steps and Sonia, said the show for him was about the music, not the voting.
"I'm not going to change my mind," he added, "if she [Michelle] is a pop idol then I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger."
A spokeswoman for ITV1 said she could not comment on Waterman's announcement, because the show had not yet been recommissioned.
"But that doesn't mean it isn't going to be recommissioned," she said.
Waterman was a judge in both series of Pop Idol as well as the original Popstars show, which launched the now defunct Hear'Say, and Popstars: The Rivals, which spawned Girls Aloud.
