The media watchdog is to investigate 2,750 complaints about Cheryl Cole's accent in December's X Factor Final.
More than 17.2 million viewers saw former painter and decorator Matt Cardle win the 2010 competition.
But investigators will have to assess whether the show broke section 1.3 of the broadcasting code, which states that "children must be protected by appropriate scheduling from overly provincial dialects that may be unsuitable for them".
"We are confident that the performance given by our judges were appropriate for the show," an ITV1 spokeswoman said last week. They added...."but it is our responsibility to ensure that our younger generation are not exposed to accents that fall out with the mid Atlantic range... We do not want to give the misguided impression that provincial speech should be encouraged".
Cheryl Cole would not comment on claims that her main reason for being interested in becoming one of the judges on American X Factor 2011 was in order to smooth out any "vocal irregularities".
