Cheryl Cole Dropped from US X Factor

Cheryl Cole’s dream of breaking into America by winning over audiences as a judge on the new show X Factor has been crushed: she’s been dropped from the panel of judges and replaced by Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger.

Just a short while after auditions for the new show began with Cole on board (together with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and L.A. Reid), she’s been dropped, TMZ reports.

The e-zine also says that the news hasn’t been confirmed yet by anyone on the show and that Cowell was not immediately available for comment when it broke.

Nevertheless, TMZ insists Cole’s departure is certain: she’s been replaced as judge by Nicole, who was initially announced as co-host with Steve Jones, when X Factor premiered in the US this fall, in September.

In a later post, TMZ notes that the reason behind the decision to take Cheryl out could be her thick accent, which, producers realized, would have made her very difficult to understand by American audiences.

In fact, this has been a concern ever since her name was first linked to the show, but Cowell insisted that this was not a problem because she would eventually make herself understood.

It turns out she couldn’t – and producers noticed that from the first auditions and took action accordingly.

“Cheryl Cole was dropped from the judging panel on X-Factor largely because producers were concerned her English accent would be too difficult for an American audience to understand,” TMZ writes citing reliable production sources.

“There were other issues too – we’re told Cheryl and fellow judge Paula Abdul had a ‘lack of chemistry’ ... and Cheryl was more expendable,” the e-zine adds.

Admittedly, producers now want Cheryl go back to the UK and continue with the British version of the show as if nothing happened – but she’s so upset about how she’s been treated that she “may sever ties with X-Factor entirely.”

Stay tuned here for updates on this.