The X Factor: Steve, Nicole, Paula are gone

(Simon Cowell with fellow X Factor judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger in a Getty Images photo.)

When I saw a story yesterday saying that Steve Jones' days as X Factor host were numbered, I wasn't broken up about it.

To hear that Nicole Scherzinger is done as a judge makes me positively gleeful. She was way over her head on the panel and she deserved to be canned after her cowardice cost Rachel Crow her place on the show.

But Paula Abdul gone too? That's a shocker. For clues I turned to Deadline Hollywood, which broke the rumour about Paula's departure yesterday. The website, quoting sources, says neither Abdul, Scherzinger nor Jones left of their own accord.

Nicole's people floated the story that she asked Simon Cowell if she could leave to focus on her music career, to which I say good luck with that.

The only judge safe from Cowell's cuts was his sparring partner L.A. Reid.

The big question is who Simon will snag for the judges' panel to boost the ratings, which seems to be his goal, given the 12.5 million or so viewers the Wednesday shows delivered weren't in keeping with his goal of reality TV world domination.

And who on earth will host? Can they clone Ryan Seacrest?

Stay tuned.