Ratings drop to new low on American Idol after judge Paula Abdul has major blunder after speaking about two songs by a contestant who had only performed once

By Jeffrey Mitchell

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/2/08 — A night after Tuesday’s controversial and embarrassing gaffe by “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul, the results show the talent show lost 1.2 million viewers from the previous week, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The vague impression from Abdul’s blunder was that AI was somehow rigged, which the show, of course, has denied. Yet “Idol” (22.1 million viewers vs. 23.3 million) has dropped ratings in nearly every episode in recent weeks, and has now hit a five-year low. A year ago, the show averaged 29 million viewers.

On Tuesday, in an odd change from the normal shows format, Paula Abdul either had another senior moment or revealed that American Idol may be pre-judging from dress rehearsals and production notes. No one is quite sure, especially Paula.

The judges made notes and passed on feedback after everyone had given one performance.

But when Abdul came to discuss Idol hopeful Jason Castro, she referred to having heard “two songs” from him.

The star said she was “confused by her notes” as the changes to the judging were made at the last minute.

After realizing her blunder, Abdul said: “Oh my god, I thought you sang twice!”

Host Ryan Seacrest tried to smooth over the situation by saying, “You’re seeing the future, baby!”, before cutting her off and asking another judge, Simon Cowell, for his comments.

Am I being melodramatic? Yeah, of course. But I can’t help myself after witnessing the moment Idols’s loopiest judge made what is indisputably the biggest (and most credibility-crushing) gaffe in the show’s seven-season history.

The fauxpaux cast doubt on the entire shows credibility. was she reading notes from a prejudged dress rehearsal? Or was it just another paula “Hello mom? I’m on acid” moment

Idol producers are hitting the bricks to explain away the gaffe but it looks like we might have “Paula-gate” on our hands. they must stop the fast paced rumours spinning that Paula was either reading pre-prepared production notes and not judging herself, or they actually did do two songs.

Let’s roll the tape and get Paula’s critique: ”Jason, the first song I loved hearing your lower register, which we never really hear. The second song, I felt like your usual charm wasn’t…it was missing for me, it kind of left me a little empty. And the two songs made me feel like you’re not fighting hard enough to get into the top four.”

Randy jumped in and “reminded” Paula on live television to thier huge audience that the contestants had only performed one song at that point in the telecast, the typically bewildered ”Straight Up” singer gasped, then declared, ”Oh my God, I thought you sang twice!”