Cheryl Cole's ascension from British pop idol to a household name in America has come to an unexpected end. The former Girls Aloud singer has been dropped from the judges' panel of Simon Cowell's The X Factor just over a week after locking up the job. Cowell hasn't provided an official reason, but rumor has it there were concerns over whether the American public would be able to understand what Cole was saying. Yes, Cole speaks English, but it's a weird English. Nicole Scherzinger, who ruined Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" in those ESPN commercials, will shift roles, from the show's co-host to judge, to replace Cole.
Just like in America, where people from New York talk very differently than people from Mississippi, "the British accent" also has many dramatically diverse variations. While the U.S. has come to embrace Cowell's refined, droll London accent, Cole's thick Newcastle twang was reportedly making it hard for contestants -- and maybe even her fellow judges -- to understand what she was saying. TMZ writes that Cole and Paula Abdul also had a "lack of chemistry," so perhaps either Cole's accent was too difficult for the barely cognizant Abdul to understand, or maybe Abdul was just jealous of the insanely good-looking Cole and it got all Mean Girls on set. Either way, Cole was shown the exit.
Check out this interview with Cole. Her accent is slightly out there, but we don't really need subtitles to understand her:
Whenever she speaks, it does sort of remind us of this though:
[Photo: D Dipasupil/WireImage.com]