Britney Spears has had a pretty good run this past couple of months – she’s had her first season on the X Factor judging panel, managed to clear her immense tax debt from the Kevin Federline (aka He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned) era and she is generally going strong without any train wrecks this year.

It might not be all sunshine and roses in Britneyland however, as this newfound maturity is what has reportedly earned the pop princess an axing from the X Factor. It is no secret that the show is in desperate need of a revamping after all-time-low ratings for this season’s finale. According to Us Weekly, producer Simon Cowell was hoping that Britney would be the one to bring the “x factor” to the mix with her crazy antics. But with puns like that then maybe the ratings failure is justifiable.

However, when the new Brit proved to be tamer than expected, Cowell decided that his $15 million investment in hiring the pop star hadn’t been worth it after all and she will be departing from the show after this season. Cowell was reportedly after Rihanna as a judge on The X Factor, but with both Britney and L.A. Reid not returning for next season and Cheryl Cole axed from the UK version, the producer not only has some huge shoes to fill, but plenty of them.