Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente (born 29 June 1978) is an American recording artist and judge of both The X Factor USA and The X Factor UK. She was originally hired to co-host alongside Steve Jones but later replaced Cheryl Cole as a judge. She was the mentor of the Over 30s group and her three finalists were Josh Krajcik, Stacy Francis, and LeRoy Bell. Krajcik finished second to Melanie Amaro.
Scherzinger is formally a member of the groups Eden's Crush and the Pussycat Dolls. She also competed on season 10 of Dancing with The Stars, which she won along with partner Derek Hough. Scherzinger also has judging experience, having previously been a judge on the NBC singing competition show The Sing-Off, leaving after two seasons to join The X Factor USA. In Week 7 of the first season, she attracted harsh criticism when finalists Rachel Crow and Marcus Canty were in the sing off and she sent the result to deadlock, which revealed that Crow finished last in the public vote. She did not return for the remaining two seasons.
In addition to her judging and mentoring duties on the show, she is also working on a solo career, having released her debut solo album Killer Love on March 18, 2011. The album's second single "Don't Hold Your Breath" hit number 2 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
On June 15, 2012, it was announced that Scherzinger would replace Kelly Rowland as a judge on The X Factor UK for the 2012 UK series. She mentored the Boys category and became the first judge to have all her acts remaining at the quarter-final stage. Her last two acts made it through to the second night of the final, guaranteeing her a winner and James Arthur was announced as the champion.
For the following series, she mentored the Girls and her last remaining act Tamera Foster made it all the way to the quarter final before finishing in 5th place. On February 12, 2014, it was reported she left the show after to focus on her music career.
In 2016, she returned to the judging panel of The X Factor for the show's 13th series where she was again put in charge of the Boys category. Her last remaining act Matt Terry made it to the final and she duetted with him, singing "Purple Rain" by Prince. The following night, he was crowned the winner, marking her second win as a mentor following James Arthur in 2012.
Nicole continued as judge on the show in 2017, where she returned for the fourteenth season of the show, mentoring the Overs category for the first time. Her act Kevin Davy White reached the final where he finished in 3rd place.
On 1st April 2018, it was confirmed that she would not be returning for Series 15.
It was announced in September 2019 that she would act as a judge alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh on The X Factor: Celebrity.
She is currently a judge on the American version of The Masked Singer.
Judges Rank
The X Factor UK
| Year | Category | Last Act | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Boys | James Arthur | Winner |
| 2013 | Girls | Tamera Foster | 5th |
| 2016 | Boys | Matt Terry | Winner |
| 2017 | Over 27s | Kevin Davy White | 3rd |
| Celebrity (2019) | Over 31s | Jenny Ryan | 3rd |
| The Band (2019) | Girls | Real Like You | Winner |
The X Factor USA
| Year | Category | Last Act | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Over 30s | Josh Krajcik | Runner-up |
Trivia
- On her first UK series, she broke a record by becoming the only judge to have a full category reach the quarter-final, with her lowest placing act, Rylan Clark finish in fifth place.
- Within the first seven weeks of her first year, she had one of her acts in the final showdown in the first, fifth and seventh weeks but all survived after the result was sent to deadlock by each of her fellow judges who had the deciding vote which saved her acts in every one of those weeks. The judges responsible for sending the result to deadlock and saving her acts were: Louis Walsh in Week 1, Tulisa in Week 5, and Gary Barlow in Week 7.
- Both of her winning acts had been in the final showdown only once and with an act from the Girls category. James Arthur survived over Ella Henderson and Matt Terry survived over Emily Middlemas with both Arthur and Terry receiving more votes than Henderson and Middlemas respectively.
- Aside from her part in The X Factor: Celebrity and The X Factor: The Band, Nicole's role as a mentor in the UK series is very similar to Dannii Minogue's role in the UK series:
- Both we’re judges on the UK show for four series.
- Both won twice.
- Both previously were judges of The X Factor in their homelands when Dannii judged The X Factor Australia in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and Nicole judged The X Factor USA in 2011.
- Both of their winners came from the Boys category (Leon Jackson and Matt Cardle for Dannii and James Arthur and Matt Terry for Nicole) - both had a winner with the name, 'Matt', the second time they won.
- Both of them were the first judge to lose all their acts in the second year - 2008 for Dannii and 2013 for Nicole.
- Both have also mentored the Girls and Overs categories once and the Boys twice with Dannii mentoring the Boys in 2007 and 2010, Over 25s in 2008, Girls in 2009, while Nicole was mentoring the Boys in 2012 and 2016, Girls in 2013, and Over 27s in 2017.
- Both had one of their highest-placing act finish 3rd in one year (Stacey Solomon for Dannii and Kevin Davy White for Nicole).
- Both also had one of their highest-placing act coming 5th in their second year (Ruth Lorenzo for Dannii and Tamera Foster for Nicole).
- Both had two of their acts in the final two in their first series on The X Factor UK with Leon Jackson and Rhydian Roberts in 2007 for Dannii and James Arthur and Jahméne Douglas in 2012 for Nicole.
- Both judged alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, and Sharon Osbourne on The X Factor UK.
- Both have judged in the same seat occupied by Kelly Rowland, Mel B, Rita Ora, and Robbie Williams.
- Both are the only two judges to judge multiple series in the seat they judged in.
- Both are beloved judges on The X Factor UK.
- Nicole's role as a mentor on The X Factor is also very similar to Kelly's role in the UK series:
- Both were judges on the USA show for one series.
- Both created a UK band on the UK show who went on to have significant global success as Nicole created One Direction and Kelly created Little Mix.
- Both have judged the UK show alongside Gary, Tulisa, and Louis.
- Both have judged a single season on the USA show with Simon.
- Both have mentored the Girls on the UK show.
- Both mentored the Overs category on the USA show, with their highest-placing acts finishing as the runner-up, and Simon was the winning mentor. This was when in 2011, Nicole had Josh Krajcik, who was in the Over 30s, finish second to Melanie Amaro and in 2013, Kelly had Jeff Gutt, who was in the Over 25s, finish second to Alex & Sierra.
- Both have had their highest-placing acts on the UK show finish in third place in the final as Kelly had Amelia Lily finish third in 2011 and Nicole had Kevin Davy White finish third in 2017. This was when Louis was the first judge to lose all his acts.
- In one series on the UK show, they have had three of their acts advance to the quarter-final with five acts remaining. In 2011, Kelly had Amelia Lily, Misha B, and Janet Devlin in the quarter-final while in 2012, Nicole had James, Jahméne, and Rylan Clark in the quarter-final. When this happened, one judge had no acts left with the other two judges having one act each in the quarter-final.
- On the UK show, both once had an act of theirs survive the sing-off in Week 7 after one of their fellow male judges voted to send the result to deadlock. In 2011, Louis voted to send Amelia Lily through to the quarter-final, and in 2012, Gary voted to send James through to the quarter-final.
- Both were assistants at the Judges' Houses stage on The X Factor Australia.