After the blood bath that left both female judges and host Steve Jones out for Season 2, the ousted pop singer says she has no regrets.
Nicole Scherzinger won’t be joining The X Factor's second season along with judge and executive producer Simon Cowell and judge L.A. Reid, but she seems to be taking the development in stride.
“I had a wonderful experience on the show,” Nicole tells Access Hollywood. “I loved being a part of my X Factor family. Nothing could obviously prepare me for everything I had to go through, all the emotions and stuff, but I have no regrets. I’ve always believed in never looking back and just moving forward and I’ve got an amazing year to look forward to.”
The news trickled out early last week when Steve Jones tweeted he wouldn’t be returning. That was soon followed by Nicole’s dismissal and Fox’s confirmation of the firings. And as if that wasn’t enough, the news that former American Idol judge Paula Abdul had also gotten the boot broke later that day.
THR’s sources revealed that Simon and his producers were having some major come to Jesus moments during an off-site meeting on the first season. And the three were sacrificed to find bigger talent that would translate into higher ratings for Season 2.
But when Scherzinger was asked what caused the Fox series to drop her, she decided to focus on the good aspects of her time with the competition.
“What happened? Well, all I know is that I gave 110% to that show,” she answers. “I know everybody’s talking about it, they’re saying good, bad, they love me or hate me, but the one thing you can’t say is that I didn’t give it my all.”
Well, Nicole may be wrong about the last part. Scherzinger’s former Over-30s team member Stacy Francis told THR a different story. She said that Scherzinger's music commitments, be it tour dates, hours spent in the recording studio, or UK appearances, limited the amount of time she was able to spend with the contestants.
"She would call us and she'd Skype,” Stacy recalled. “But it wasn't the same as sitting in rehearsal with us." And she said that didn’t go unnoticed by Simon.
"[One time], Simon came over to me and said 'Stacy, this is Nicole; Nicole, this is Stacy.' I think that was his way of saying that he wanted her spending more time there,” the singer said. “Don't get me wrong, I love Nicole and had a great time working with her, I just didn't always agree with her mentoring decisions."
Nicole, who’s appearing in the upcoming Men In Black 3, says she’s moving on to a European tour in a few days, though the former Pussycat Doll’s first solo album has been marred by several delays and has been pushed to release sometime this year. And now, Scherzinger says she also has her eye on entering the musical theatre world.
“Last year I sang Phantom of the Opera for the royal family and for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber,” she says. “So that reignited me to want to be back in the theater again, so I think I’m gonna do some more theater work this year.”
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