Can Cheryl Cole's return save The X Factor (and her fading career)? 

  • Girls Aloud star left 4 years ago to break US, blasting Cowell in her book
  • Will.i.am promised duet with Rihanna and record deal but all fell through
  • Now career fading - and X Factor viewing figures dropped by 6m since 2010
  • Cowell and Cole hope the move will give both a boost this year

By Alison Boshoff

PUBLISHED: 18:05 EST, 11 March 2014 | UPDATED: 18:37 EST, 11 March 2014


Making her comeback: Cheryl Cole yesterday publicly announced her return to The X Factor

Making her comeback: Cheryl Cole yesterday publicly announced her return to The X Factor

She left The X Factor behind four years ago, all dimples and optimism, believing she was about to conquer America and launch an international career.

Now Cheryl Cole is – somewhat embarrassingly – right back at square one.

She is returning to ITV’s Saturday night series, playing the adoring foil to mogul Simon Cowell – a man who, until fairly recently, she heartily despised.

Cowell desperately hopes Cheryl will help revitalise the flagging show. Her last appearance, in 2010, was watched by 17.7million viewers, while the most recent series of The X Factor, the tenth, had a peak audience of 11.5million.

However, while her return will undoubtedly give the talent contest a fillip when the next series begins later this year, whether Cheryl can effect a long-term boost is very much open to question.

Professionally, she is in the doldrums. She may have a fortune of around £20million, but her pop career is fading.

She hired eccentric Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am against all advice as her manager, and then had to fire him.

Her American TV experiment in 2011 was a disaster – she lasted only two days of filming on The X Factor USA. Her Geordie accent baffled viewers, who failed to warm to her.

On a personal level, she remains painfully single – posting teenager-ish outpourings of angst on her Instagram account only last week.

‘Don’t believe the things you tell yourself so late at night. You are your own worst enemy!’ she wrote.

She also added a picture of herself looking tearful while wearing a baseball cap. The picture was captioned ‘Not today’ and featured some sad-faced ‘emoticon’ symbols.

Friends say she is anguished because her best friend, former bandmate Kimberley Walsh, is pregnant while her own dream of motherhood remains unfulfilled.

And despite her often-trumpeted status as the nation’s sweetheart, she has made blunders time and again.

Take her bid to be ‘gorgeous and free’ in style like her heroine Rihanna, the chart-topping Barbadian superstar with the racy reputation. It resulted in a shockingly nasty rose tattoo all over Cheryl’s previously perfect derriere.

It was said that beauty giant L’Oreal was thinking of dropping her from her big-money contract last year because they were so annoyed by it.

So what is the truth behind Cheryl’s re-emergence?

Presumably rather a lot of humble pie has been eaten.

After all, when she was sacked from The X Factor USA in 2011, she sent Simon Cowell the following text message: ‘F*** you. F*** Fox. F*** Britain’s Got Talent. F*** the orange and purple outfit. F*** big hair. F*** the UK X Factor. F*** you all. I hate you.’

In her 2012 autobiography Cheryl: My Story, she painted a very unflattering picture of Cowell. In one of their earliest conversations, she said, Cowell spent the whole time looking over her shoulder because he could see his reflection in a mirrored building opposite.

She claimed that, while sacking her from The X Factor USA, he offered her the post of head judge on the UK version, even though he had already given it to Gary Barlow.

She posted this photo on Instagram yesterday to break the news, adding: 'GUESS WHAT!!..?? i'M BAAAACCCCKKKKK!!!!'

She posted this photo on Instagram yesterday to break the news, adding: 'GUESS WHAT!!..?? i'M BAAAACCCCKKKKK!!!!'

Delighted: Simon Cowell gave a thumbs up to crowds at a press conference at London's Arts Club

Delighted: Simon Cowell gave a thumbs up to crowds at a press conference at London's Arts Club

Simon has always been a fan, despite Cheryl's unflattering portrait of him in her 2012 autobiography

Simon has always been a fan, despite Cheryl's unflattering portrait of him in her 2012 autobiography

He then allegedly offered to sack either Tulisa Contostavlos or Kelly Rowland to make way for her, and said she could choose which one should go.

It seemed that there wasn’t much love lost between them. However, despite the success of her single Call My Name, released in June 2012 from the album A Million Lights, it has become obvious to Cheryl that her career without Cowell doesn’t amount to much.

A Million Lights had just a fraction of the sales of the previous two albums, and industry insiders say the next one, due out this summer, will make or break her career.

 

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Will.i.am had promised that he would help her conquer the American market and said that there would be duets with artists such as Rihanna. These didn’t materialise, and Cheryl didn’t get a US recording contract either. Late last year, she cut the cord with him.

Girls Aloud, the manufactured pop band which took Cheryl from a council estate in Heaton, Newcastle, to stardom, reunited for a farewell tour last spring but are decisively apart now.

In October, Cheryl announced that she had signed with Modest Management – which also looks after X Factor alumni such as One Direction, JLS, Little Mix and Olly Murs. (She had been suing Blue Sky productions, the makers of The X Factor USA, for £1.4million of lost earnings. The lawsuit was settled to the satisfaction of both parties in November.)

Simon is hoping Cheryl's return will bring the ratings back to their chart-topping high. There were 17.7m viewers when she last appeared on the panel. But the most recent series had a peak of 11.5m

Simon is hoping Cheryl's return will bring the ratings back to their chart-topping high. There were 17.7m viewers when she last appeared on the panel. But the most recent series had a peak of 11.5m

The pair were known for their flirtatiousness. He would peak down her dress and she would do bunny ears

The pair were known for their flirtatiousness. He would peak down her dress and she would do bunny ears

She will earn a reported £1.5m on the show, and joked that she only returned to stop Cowell's begging

She will earn a reported £1.5m on the show, and joked that she only returned to stop Cowell's begging

It was clear that Cheryl was turning to Cowell again – and the combination of mass exposure and well-funded marketing which he offers via his TV shows. Indeed, it was Modest Management which apparently came up with a three-year plan to try to extend her life as a celebrity (she will be 31 this summer).

Being a part of The X Factor – just for one year – was a key part of trying to get the public to engage with her again.

Despite the falling out, Cowell has always been a fan. He once told her: ‘If I knew what made you so special, I would literally bottle it and sell it.’ He had apologised to her over and over again for the sacking, and she has finally been persuaded to come back on board.

When asked why she had agreed to return, she joked: ‘I mean there’s only so much begging one can take. It’s not nice to see a grown man cry.

‘If you had asked me the previous two years I would have said “Absolutely not”. This year it just feels right. I always go for my gut instinct. We had a hit show the last time I was on it. I’m really excited to be on it again.’

Of course it will be financially worth her while – she is being paid a reported £1.5million – but Cowell also promised her it would be ‘fun’.

Talking about their on-screen reunion yesterday, Cowell said: ‘It took me 2,000 calls, it’s not bad. I know it sounds corny, but it is nice to work with people I like.

‘I know we had a massive fallout but I do consider Cheryl to be a friend. I trust her and she is loyal. We can pick up where we left off.’

Viewers can expect the tight-knit duo to carry on where they left off as Simon says she is a genuine friend

Viewers can expect the tight-knit duo to carry on where they left off as Simon says she is a genuine friend

Cheryl's pop career is fading, and she is still getting over her broken marriage, so this should be a boost

Cheryl's pop career is fading, and she is still getting over her broken marriage, so this should be a boost

Cowell is returning to the show as well, and believes that the public will be intrigued to see the pair’s flirtatious best-of-‘frenemies’ relationship on screen again.

That relationship was, admittedly, conducted on a puerile level. Cowell would ostentatiously peek down Cheryl’s dress and make a schoolboyish comment one day, she would make ‘bunny ears’ above his head the next – but the audience did seem to enjoy it.

People who know Cheryl say that she could use some fun in her life. They suggest that she is still getting over the messy collapse of her marriage to footballer Ashley Cole, who was caught out ‘sexting’ a blonde stranger in February 2010, only four years after their wedding.

A subsequent romance with American dancer Tre Holloway failed to last.

Cheryl now lives in a rented flat in north London, which she shares for much of the time with her brother Gary and mother Joan.

Though she has posted a series of downright miserable messages on Twitter and Instagram, there have also been signs that, after a difficult few years, she has recovered some of her pugnacity.

As she recently tweeted: ‘Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self esteem first make sure you are not in fact surrounded by ****holes.’

What she will think of her famous colleagues by the time the next series of The X Factor ends remains to be seen.

Comments (39)

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OH NO!!! can not stand her, will not watch ever again

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In a word NO she is a washed up has been with no dignity. So glad I I stopped watching this dross of a show

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No question...Noooooooo she's a has been and talentless! FAIL on Cowell's behalf, he's been away too long!

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Can she save the X factor? Are you kidding, she is a talentless has been who needs this show to re launch her miming career. I for one won't be watching this circus on tv

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How is she not embarrassed by the fact that shes returning back to square one again. Personally I think Cheryl Cole has lost her star quality and will never regain it. People have moved on from thinking of her as the "nations sweetheart". Returning to the x factor will not change matters because it too has lost its sparkle.. both are fighting a losing battle.

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No she can not safe xfactor. Simon need to deal with the fact that xfactor is (alomst) dead. Its time for him to let that show go peacefully and find something new.

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I'd be pretty embarrassed if I was her right now, after all the fuss she made of it all and now to go crawling back even after Simon publicly humiliated her, and defending the decision to do so with the old cliche it just 'feels right' more like the price was right. Pay someone enough and it seems they will be willing to abandon their pride and self respect.

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No.

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Hand's up...to answe your question..NO!!!

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Can't stand that woman

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