US X Factor premiered last night, and the reviews are in. In short, Simon Cowell made a mistake. Yes, indeed, this is yet another Cheryl Cole themed Gossip story. Huzzah.
In fact, Simon made two mistakes - he should've given the hosting gig to Dermot instead of Steve Jones - but sure we'll get to that in a minute.
First, to the New York Times. Of Nicole Scherzinger, they said: "In the premiere Cheryl just kind of disappears mid show, without much explanation, and suddenly Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls is in her chair. It's a downgrade. Ms Cole showed glimmers of being interesting; in two seasons as a judge on The Sing-Off on NBC, Ms Scherzinger was a pretty face but, judicially speaking, not much more than a seat warmer."
As if that weren't enough, the LA Times added: "On a first impression, she is much more interesting than Scherzinger, if only for her fabulous Geordie accent... (Sherzinger) is more interested in tearing up and out-glamming Pop Idol's Jennifer Lopez than bringing much to the commentary."
And, in case we were in any doubt regarding the theme of the reviews, the Chicago Tribune clarified things with: "Scherzinger doesn't come off as an obvious improvement [on Cole]."
What of Steve Jones? Well, he's "utterly irrelevant" (New York Times) and "so far in the background, he might as well be on another network" (The Boston Herald).
Meanwhile, back in Simon's homestead of Blighty, an insider was happy to state the obvious to The Mirror: "They tried to make Cheryl come across as a smiling dummy, but it has backfired and people love her. Simon is not going to be happy with the initial reviews because Nicole is being knocked and Cheryl has only praise. Maybe he made a bad call which could affect the success of the show long-term."
Somewhere, Cheryl and Dermot are chest bumping, before vigorously hugging it out.
If you would like to see Nicole warming some seats, and Steve being irrelevant, you can do so tonight on ITV2 from 8.00pm, and TV3 on Friday at 9.00pm.
