'X Factor': Cheryl Cole Out, Nicole Scherzinger In

Nicole Scherzinger attends the 2011 Fox Upfronts in New York City.

D Dipasupil/WireImage

British pop star Cheryl Cole has been dropped as a judge on the American version of Simon Cowell's singing competition The X Factor. According to reports from TMZ and Us Weekly, Cole will be replaced as a judge by Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger when the show debuts on Fox in the fall. Scherzinger had been tapped originally to co-host the show.

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TMZ's sources claim that Cole was dropped in part because the show's producers were concerned that her Northern English accent would be incomprehensible to American audiences. Cole, who is a judge on the British version of the show, is regularly mocked in the U.K. media – and by Cowell himself – for her thick "Geordie" accent.

As of yet, no one directly involved with the show has officially announced Cole's departure or Scherzinger's shift to judge status.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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