Hammond On Cannes: Robert Redford’s Brave New Role … 
Hot Trailer: Jennifer Aniston And Jason Sudeikis’ … 
Warner Bros Tells Space Story, From The Bra Designers Who … 
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Banner Promotes Jeremy Kleiner As … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Don Jon’ 
Billy Crystal-Starring Comedy From Matt Nix & Larry … 
UPDATE: Toronto Lands World Premiere Of Godfrey … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ … 
CBS Reups Tony Awards Through 2018 
HBO, FX Lead Critics’ Choice TV Awards — But … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Lionsgate Acquires U.S. On Guillaume Canet’s … 
Cannes: Radius-TWC Buys Keanu Reeves’ Helming Debut … 
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
The drama continues. After she was dropped from the U.S. X Factor and declined to return to the original British show, Cheryl Cole now may rejoin the Fox version. British papers and TMZ are reporting tonight that Cole has been asked to come back to the U.S. X Factor. Speculation is that if Cole turns down the offer, the producers of the Fox series would be off the hook for the $1.5 million the British singer was guaranteed for the gig. The latest twist in the saga may explain why Fox, Cowell or X Factor co-producer FremantleMedia never officially confirmed Cole’s exit. Cowell normally relishes controversy, but this is a bit too much even for him. With the Cole drama still ongoing, over the past couple of days he also has been forced to defend himself from accusation that the current season of Britain’s Got Talent has been rigged.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
What’s she going to mentor the contestants on, mime?
She’ll mentor them on how to win (Alexandra Burke and Joe McElderry) or how to go to the final (Cher Lloyd and Rebecca Ferguson)
Well she was going to do more than stand in front of a bunch of strippers & pretend to sing.
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Good. I’m sure some Americans can get over her accent.
I hope she stays on as a judge, she did a great job on the UK version and is more interesting than Sherzinger.
This story still doesn’t make sense. It’s rumored shes fired but never confirmed and reasons cited were her accent and/or chemistry with the panel. If those reasons are true and you were going to pay her anyways then why pay her AND have her on the show? Why risk losing more money if she’s really that bad?
Just bring her back and the let the ratings decide if this panel works.
“Why risk losing more money if she’s really that bad?”
Probably because Fox and Cowell have a lot riding on this show working the first season. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they really did think at one point that it would be a small price to pay if it meant ensuring their panel had chemistry.
Then again I believe this was all another PR stunt, so.
YES!! Love her! Bring her back!
This sounds like a publicity PR stunt to get the show in the news.
Completely agree. This whole thing was a stunt to introduce Cheryl Cole to America in a way we would not forget. Then everyone linked to these really sweet videos of her as a judge and we said “Oh, but of course we can understand her!” Now she’s a sympathetic figure and we’re all rooting for her. Congrats Fox and Simon, you have pulled off a masterful PR stunt!
agreed. What sane company just gives away $1.5 million dollars without thinking of a way to keep it?
Of course it is. Every week for every season Idol played the media like a cheap fiddle. And Simon is doing it again. Now on both sides of the pond. Even Deadline is suckered into the crap and giving them tons of free publicity. Yikes….
Agreed… it seems odd that they would fire her after she already taped the auditions… I doubt Fox hired her without doing camera tests or at least watching her on the UK version.
Also, it’s rumored that her weight was an issue, yet she’s so tiny (I can’t see any extra weight can anyone else?). What a way to make the studio look evil and make her the underdog.
I hope she comes back. The reasons for dropping her were ridiculous to begin with.
all’s well that ends well. remember when the houston rockets tried to trade robert horry for sean elliot, but the deal fell through because elliot failed the physical. and horry went back to houston and helped them win two titles? i think this is a blessing in disguise.
This is f’ing ridiculous. Enough already. I will be so bold as to state that the American viewing audience truly DOES NOT CARE about this story. This “news” item needs to go nigh’-night. Zzzzzzz.
Because deadline is in the habit of only posting stories that ‘the American viewing audience’ truly cares about?
Put her on the show – I want to see her. She’s a huge hit in Britain. If we have to endure Sharon Osbourne obviously we can enjoy a much much hotter version. What’s the prob? Lets do it!@
It was more about that Cheryl Cole isn’t known here and FOX wanted a name – the language issue was an excuse
…but they knew that when they hired her? I don’t understand any of the reasons that have been rumored. She’s not a big enough name, her accent is too thick, etc. they knew this BEFORE they signed her so it’s not as if they figured this out after the fact.
I was thinking this was a rumor that FOX let run for free publicity but then I wonder why they would want to start the notion that Cheryl wasn’t understandable to viewers. Some American viewers really do struggle with UK accents (oddly enough).
Well, far more people know who she is now. Admittedly, she’s not Paula or Simon, but this whole debacle certainly raised her profile in the States and had the added benefit of preparing the audience for her accent, which is entirely understandable anyway. Sounds more and more staged with each development.
Agreed–no one in the US knows who she is or what she does. We can’t figure out why this is such a big deal in Britain.
@john marzan – I will compare Cole to Big Shot Bob when–if– “The X Factor” crushes “American Idol” in the ratings!
She does’t do rong but if she like to be back to the X Force, his the best for her.
Freemantle is run by FOOLS!! Their PR Dept. is seriously staffed by PR 101 students. Some dolt out of the UK runs it and she is AWFUL. They cause bad PR just by being. Truth be told this show doesn’t even seem interested and putting some girl that no one can understand won’t even make a difference. Middle American does not know who Nicole Whomever is, Cheryl Can’t Speak English is, or What’s That Black Guys Name Is so all in all, the show will tank, even with an over medicated Paula and Simon.
Nicole is known all over the world as the lead singer for the Pussycat Dolls and winner of Dancing With The stars…
She was never fired! This is a PR stunt gone awfully wrong. She just took a break & will be back fir the New York auditions. Whim are we kidding, Scherzinger’s single flopped even after an IDOL performance. Cheryl is here to stay.
Fox better hope she turns them down. Otherwise they’re gonna be screwed come fall – Cheryl’s accent will be indecipherable, and The Voice will steamroll over the X-Factor.
Who cares, seriously who cares? Cheryl who?
“Who cares, seriously who cares? Cheryl who?”
@bblah blah
We care, we all care bblah blah, we the automatons of the US of A. We will rise up and consume the globe in an orgy of line dancing, while drenched in the potent lingering stench of Bud Lite (with a hint of lime)
This was a brilliantly engineered publicity stunt to get every media outlet in the country writing about someone the American public had never heard of. How many people have now heard of Cheryl Cole? The firing was never confirmed, nobody reacted how people would normally react when a multi-million dollar deal has broken down – this was a set up, and the American media has been beautifully played. Far more civilized than releasing a sex tape.
Sure, this can all just be publicity. But really, how can NBC and The Voice get their stuff together in a few months and do it well enough to have a successful launch while The X Factor has had more than a year to get their act together and a bunch of people who have already done this before? What a mess.
Good god is this chick desperate or what? No talent, incomprehensible, lazy thug who beats up black toilet attendants and racially abuses them.
She can’t make it any other way due to her lack of singing voice and robotic stiff dancing, she has to try to get more sympathy. Lame. And this is what y’all want on the show? A hot damn mess.
What’s interesting is that when they realised it would cost them just as much to get rid of her, they decided they might as well just keep with her under contract – and then they are off the hook for giving her a pay out if she declines.
Sneaky buggers, I hope Cheryl does go back and proves them all wrong
If she will come back and it was all a publicity stunt then they failed. Because no one felt sorry for her. Everyone were like: “Good riddance”. And if she will be back then everybody will just hate her. Audience can easily boo her during auditions and live telecast later.
It’s Hollywood. They are all crazy there. They could easily do this as publicity stunt to make people know who this Cheryl Cole is. And feel sorry for her. But it will backlash hardly. Because majority of the people (maybe like 85%) were happy that she was sent off. And people were like: “Go back to England you loser. Try to speak as normal English person first and then try to break it in America”. And everybody sad Good Riddance to her. And if they will throw her in our face again then I will officially hate X-Factor too.
i can’t stand her, she was rubbish! hi hi hi!!
Typical Cowell publicity stunt. She was never fired in the first place. Shocked she got a visa though with her conviction for assault.
This is sounding as dumb as Sarah Palins bus tour.
I think that was fairly obvious from the start, I’ve been saying this for a while now. They needed a fresh face, a new star and they got one WITH X-factor experience, why would they have fired her ? She is going to be huge in the US and Fox was fully aware of it otherwise they wouldn’t have hired her in the first place.
It was a publicity stunt and though I hate those, I must admit : it was a remarkably well-executed one. The US-public had no idea who she was before all this and now, a week later they are rooting for the stunning British girl who had been so poorly treated in the US so far, so let’s make her feel welcome and clap our asses off during the next audition. Then she will probably turn on the fireworks and during a few sob story-auditions, and there : you have an instant star. Beautiful, lovely, relatable. It was all about publicity and to make people sympathize with her and the best way to do it is to make her look like a victim. The best part i, that though this (IMO) fake-firing generated a lot of articles everywhere, no official confirmation was made so in the end, the studio and the producers have the bulletproof defense that they NEVER said they fired her in the first place. And now she’ll have the longest standing ovation during the next audition, that will be the the audience’s way of congratulating her on getting her fairy tale job back…although it was clearly NEVER lost. Well-done Cowell, you sneaky (though brilliant) bastard !
She is expected to join the panel in New Jersey on Wednesday.