Cheryl Cole’s ‘X-Factor’ ouster a sore spot for Brits

Pop star Cheryl Cole lasted only a few days as a judge on Fox’s new talent-spotting program “The X Factor.” But she was dumped from the job so unceremoniously that, in the eyes of many Brits, she might as well have been on “The Apprentice,” with snarky “X Factor” impresario Simon Cowell bellowing, “You’re fired!” at her before an audience of millions.

Cole’s public humiliation set Britain’s tabloids and society pages abuzz, mostly with sympathy toward her and contempt for Cowell.

“Our Cheryl, kicked off ‘X Factor’?” British comedian Russell Brand told a morning talk show recently. “Oh, no! She’s Britain’s sweetheart.”

To Americans, the dark-haired, bubbly Cole, 27, is a relative unknown. But over here, Cole has been a bona-fide star for nearly a decade, catapulted to fame by the same vehicle that also just sent her packing from the U.S.: a TV reality-show competition.

While still a teenager, Cole and four other young women were chosen on the program “Popstars: The Rivals” in 2002 to form a band called Girls Aloud, which went on to record several hit albums and No. 1 singles in Britain.

She was still Cheryl Ann Tweedy then, the lass made good from Newcastle, in the gritty industrial far north of England. (She changed her name to Cole after marrying soccer player Ashley Cole; the couple have since divorced, but she retains his last name.)

Cole has described her childhood on a public-housing estate as not unhappy but often tough.

“I remember living on baked beans, eggs and bread — if it wasn’t out of date,” Cole said in 2009. “I’d get a Barbie that was four years out of fashion from a girl in the street who didn’t want it anymore.”

Part of Cole’s charm in class-conscious Britain derives from, despite her financial success, not trying to put on aristocratic airs or hide where she comes from. She makes no attempt to soften her “Geordie” accent, the Newcastle twang that snobs who prefer the Queen’s English disparage as a vowel-mangling, lower-class horror.

“I’m very proud of my Geordie roots,” she said.

But there are rumors that Cowell considered her accent too thick and that it may have helped cost her the job on “The X Factor” in the U.S, where she was replaced by Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls.

Cole’s accent was certainly no drawback on the original program, Britain’s most-watched television show (a third of the population tuned in to December’s season finale). Cole spent three seasons as a judge, from 2008 to 2010, which shot her celebrity quotient into the stratosphere. Making the leap onto American screens was to be its apotheosis.

Instead, Cole’s turn in the U.S. appears over before it began, and any hopes of parlaying success on American TV into a transatlantic singing career now seem far off.

Britain’s ravenous tabloids, which weren’t so kind to Cole when she was charged in 2003 with assaulting a nightclub employee and using racist epithets, have generally sided with her against Cowell, who’s known for his sharp tongue and even sharper elbows.

Gossip columns say their once-close relationship is kaput, noting that Cole sent flowers to Scherzinger and fellow judge Paula Abdul and a fruit basket to panelist L.A. Reid when “X Factor” auditions began in New Jersey last week but nothing to Cowell.

He has tried to make amends.

“The hardest thing to accept is that everyone has painted me as a monster because I embarrassed her. But the truth was I was protecting her,” Cowell told the Sun last week. “I just want people to be in the best place at the right time…. It wasn’t that she was terrible — she was good. I just thought she’d be happier in the U.K.”

So here she is back at home, where rumors swirl that Cole is being courted to serve as a judge on the upcoming U.K. version of American reality show “The Voice.”

The BBC is reportedly considering airing the program on Saturday nights. If so, then its main competition would be — surprise! — “The X Factor.”

henry.chu@latimes.com