Cheryl Cole better than Nicole Scherzinger on The X Factor, critics say

Last night, British producer Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, British singer Cheryl Cole (for the first hour), producer L.A. Reid sat at the judging table to kick off the season premiere of the new singing contest “The X Factor.”

During the first hour, Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole was set to be replaced by former Pussycat Dolls front girl Nicole Scherizenger.

Rumours has it that Fox executives never got the memo about which girl was better for television. 

According to reports, Cole had been kicked out from the show in May -- and  been judging for only three weeks -- due to her strong North Eastern British accent (Geordie) and possible  “lack of chemistry" with Abdul.

(Right) Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger on the Piers Morgan Show. Photo sourced from CNN.com.

However, Simon Cowell defended his position, telling Piers Morgan on the Piers Morgan Show that he had fired Cole because she looked like she didn't know what she was doing. 

But was this the right decision?

The brutally-honest judge might be having second thoughts, after Cole’s performance sparked rave reviews among .U.S critics, not so much on Scherzinger.

The New York Times said that Scherzinger was "not much more than a seat warmer and it was actually a "downgrade” from Cole.

Los Angeles Times also seemed to prefer Cole over Scherzinger.

“On a first impression, she is much more interesting than Scherzinger, if only for her fabulous Geordie accent."

TV Guide did not see the problem with Cheryl's accent either :

“Is Cheryl Cole really that hard to understand? Or did someone at Fox just owe Nicole  a rather large favor? (Because frankly, Cheryl was awesome, made total sense and was adorable to boot. Please submit your plausible explanations as to why she was fired in the comments section because we're coming up empty.)”

Listen to Cole's accent below and judge for yourselves if she's hard to understand.