Louis Walsh will be jetting out to America this week and fill in for his idol Simon Cowell.

Cowell has taken ill and is suffering from a bad case of bronchitis – which of course has nothing to do with his decades of smoking – and won’t be able to make the Kansas auditions for his hit Fox talent show.

It has been reported that his old Irish pal will sit on the panel for two days with L.A. Reid, Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, as he is the most experience TV judge around.

The former Westlife boss has been on the X Factor UK ever since it launched in 2004 and other than a few auditions which he missed due to being briefly fired by Cowell, has been a permanent fixture on the British panel.

One Direction are currently storming America and of course, Louis and Simon were the men who put them together.

Simon is currently convalescing in his LA mansion, while Louis will take his seat for two days, starting tomorrow, when the tryouts hit Kansas.

‘Louis is really excited,’ a source close to Louis told The Daily Mail.

‘He’s going to have to get on a jet almost immediately so he can make it in time.’

Louis will have to jet straight home too, as the X Factor UK Glasgow auditions start on the 11th

We hope the Americans like his new bouffant hairdo!