We revealed last night that Paula Abdul and Nicola Scherzinger have been axed from the X Factor USA and already, people are talking about replacements.

The series won’t return to TV screens until September and filming starts around May, when the new panel will begin auditioning singing hopefuls, however it is said that Simon Cowell is already in talks with a number of stars to replace his female judges and some that will may over from Steve Jones as presenter.

The Sun reports that one of the front runners for a judging role is US singing superstar Mariah Carey. The ‘Hero’ hitmaker was heavily tipped to join the panel last year, and revealed that she had been in talks with Cowell and Fox bosses, but she was heavily pregnant and opted instead just to help Simon at judges houses.

However, Carey’s husband Nick Cannon spoke out last week and said that his wife will definitely not be joining a talent show, because she is too big a star.

Speaking on his radio show he said:

“Why would would my wife want to be on a show like that? For somebody who has a legendary career, I don’t know why they would do that.”

He also criticised American Idol judge Steve Tyler for joining the show last year.

The Sun went on to claim that Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj are also in Cowell’s sights, along with former X Factor UK judge Kelly Rowland.

It is claimed that Kelly told the music mogul she would not return to the British series, as she hated being away from home for such a long period of time, so he may now be considering moving her to the US version.

Katy Perry previously guest judged on the UK show, standing in when Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave in 2010.

Last year Simon confessed that he had been in talks with Minaj about a ‘number of projects’ and speaking to XXLMag.com, he added:

“She’s very smart, very influential, very bright and along with artists like Jessie J. You can’t ignore them and sooner or later they have to be in our world and we have to be in their world.”

So what do you think of Paula and Nicole’s possible replacements and who else do you think would fit the role?

As always, leave your comments below.