After witnessing the multi-hued splendor of Tuesday's boys' night, last night's all-girl competition on American Idol was something of a letdown, each contestant virtually indistinguishable from the pageant-ready hopeful who came before her. Even Carly Smithson, the focus of some controversy for having already released a major-label album only to see it flop spectacularly, failed to impress an even-ornerier-than-usual Simon Cowell, who diverged from his two articulation-challenged co-judges to (rightfully) observe, "there's so much hype about you...so much expectation...there's a buzz about you...everything about it for me was a letdown."

While American Idol is still a ratings powerhouse and one of the strongest franchises on television, there is no denying that the brand has taken more than its fair share of lumps since Jordin Sparks was crowned the winner of the show's sixth season. In addition to stillborn debuts from last season's two finalists (Blake Lewis and the aforementioned Miss Sparks), past winners like Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard were both recently unceremoniously dropped from their recording deals. So when confronted with waning ratings during this season's tiresome pre-series run of "Hey, Look At That Jackass" moments, it seems that Idol producers turned to a tride and true gimmick in order to get people talking about their show once again. They created a controversy.

Just when you thought that it was finally safe not to watch American Idol anymore, another (curiously well-timed) Idol scandal is beginning to break, one that will surely pique everyone's interest in the show once again. Seems that one of Idol's final 24 contestents, Carly Smithson, is a professional singer who recorded an album that was released by a major label back in 2001. With that being the case, you must be curious as to why you've never heard of her. Well, that's because her debut album was recorded under her maiden name (Carly Hennessy) and was a colossal flop! Still, she was a professional, people, which means we have an Official Scandal on our hands. However, if Fox's latest attempt to goose ratings fails to catch on, we're fairly confident that it's only a matter of days before the network begins leaking photos of a wet t-shirt clad Simon Cowell frolicking about in a water fountain to an adoring public. That'll get 'em. [Reuters]