Cowell on Cole's exit

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — At auditions filmed Thursday before a live audience for The X Factor, Simon Cowell (photo) seemed to want people to move on from the shakeup on the show’s judges panel replacing British pop singer Cheryl Cole with American counterpart Nicole Scherzinger.

“It wasn’t really such a big deal as everybody thought,” Cowell said. “Truth is you’ve got to move on.”

Earlier in the week, Fox and producers announced Cole was out and Scherzinger, who originally was signed on to co-host the show, would slide over to the judges table along with Cowell, Paula Abdul and LA Reid.