Cheryl WILL return to The X Factor this year

During the nine months of the year that The X Factor isn’t on telly and we can't actually watch it, we devote our time to thinking about it instead.

Popular conversations in the heat office include – who will be in the judging panel? WTF is going on with Cheryl and Nicole Scherzinger? And will Chezza ever return to the show?

Luckily we have the answer to one (MAYBE TWO?) of those questions, as host Dermot O’Leary has said that she will come back.

He told Metro: "Cheryl’s going to come back”, and this coupled with a previous report by The Sun that she’s going to replace Nicole Scherzinger on the panel could very well indicate Cheryl will be a judge in 2018.

But Dermot did add that if Cheryl, for any reason, didn’t return - he’d like Mariah Carey to take the coveted spot.

“If it wasn’t Cheryl, I would love Mariah. It would be a whole new world of crazy my friend!"

We would bloody love Mariah, tbh.

This comes after Nicole slammed Simon Cowell’s judging panel decision, branding him ‘so last minute’.

While you're here, why not remind yourself of The X Factor's most eccentric finalists ever?

When asked if she knew whether she’d be on the panel, she said: “We know in the same month that he announces it.”

She continued: “We’ll see what happens.”

There has also been recent reports that Cheryl wouldn’t return to the panel if Louis Walsh and Sinitte were hired (bit harsh).

A source told Closer magazine that Cheryl "called Simon and said she wasn’t sure she could return to the show if Louis or Sinitta were hired."

“Simon now feels stuck in the middle and he said her X Factor role could be in jeopardy,” they continued.

“Cheryl used to be able to pull all the strings with Simon but that sparkle has fizzled out."