Nicole Scherzinger Gives Up?

Tonight marks the premiere of the CW series Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, the sequel to The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll that will set out to launch another girl group under the Pussycat Dolls’ brand name-slash-marketing deal with Interscope Records. In the New York Daily News‘ preview of the show, not only do we learn about the Girlicious-branded merchandise that’ll soon be lining your local 99-cent stores’ aisles (makeup, clothing, a new album incorporating the sounds of TLC and Destiny’s Child), we learn that the original Pussycat Doll–Nicole “Her Name Is Nicole” Scherzinger–will be returning to the fishnet-covered arms of the group that spawned her.

Stalwart PCD fans should also be excited to know that Nicole Scherzinger is back with that group and they’re making music again. “We’re in the studio right now,” [Pussycat Dolls founder Robin] Antin said. “Nicole is 100% back with us. She actually never left. She was working on her solo stuff and it’s out there and people will hear that, but she actually wants to focus on Pussycat Dolls right now. We all want to. We’re going full force.”

Scherzinger’s “solo stuff” has been, of course, “out there” for a while, despite the general populace’s unwillingness to pay it any mind. What her newfound desire to focus on the Pussycat Dolls’ output right now will mean for the release date of her long-delayed solo debut Her Name Is Nicole–which now has a June 23 street date–is anyone’s guess, although given that Scherzinger is the only singer credited on the Pussycat Dolls’ first album and there’s been a wide swath of indifference to the songs on Nicole that have made it out so far perhaps the suits at Interscope are just thinking of giving the whole project a quick rebranding and a Paris Hilton-assisted bonus track or two, if only to get the damned thing off everyone’s backs.

‘Girlicious’ musical vibes [NY Daily News]