Is it just Paula or is Idol fixed?

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American Idol judge Paula Abdul made a mistake this week that sent speculation soaring that the show is rigged or that, at the very least, the producers pre-determine judges' comments for the contestants' performances no matter how well (or badly) they do.

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On Tuesday, the Top 5 performed the hits of Neil Diamond. With only five contestants remaining, the show's producers decided to squeeze two songs out of every performer in one hour, meaning that the show had to move along at a lightning-fast clip.

The banter between judges Paula, Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest was noticeably less during the show as Ryan sped through his delivery and practically kicked each contestant off the stage as soon as their last note was sung. After the first round of songs, all five contestants were lined up and Ryan asked the judges to quickly critique the singers. When it came to Paula, she ended up critiquing both of Jason Castro's songs -- even though he'd only sung once.

You may be thinking, "Well, what's the big deal?" Easy. Jason hadn't sung his second song yet and Paula -- who's typically overly nice and nurturing -- was actually quite vicious toward his second effort. She said he wasn't trying and that it wasn't the Jason they put through to the Top 24. The implication was definitely that he should be kicked off the show.

Commentators and fans then started speculating wildly that the show is rigged and that the judges' comments are predetermined. Rumours abounded that Paula's mistake let the secret out, infuriating producers to the point of firing her. (That didn't happen.)

Paula later explained that the comments for Jason's second song were actually meant for David Cook. Hard to believe, though, because she said that she thought David was the next American Idol during the show. Doesn't exactly jive.

With that said, if the show were really rigged, season two winner Ruben Studdard and season five winner Taylor Hicks would not have won. Both have been commercial disasters and the producers certainly saw that coming. I know that Simon certainly did with Taylor. He's always been quite open about his dislike for Taylor's singing. In fact, both Ruben and Taylor were recently dropped by their record labels because of poor sales.

And why would producers rig a show that brings in truckloads of cash for the Fox network and the stars of the show? Why take the risk? Part of the fun is the unpredictability of fans, after all.

With that said, this is not the first time that Paula's said something idiotic. In fairness to her, though, it's been reported that she has Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a kind of chronic pain. This means that she's likely on some pretty strong medication, which would explain the oddness and momentary lapses in judgment.

Rickey Yaneza, an Idol mega-fan who runs a blog called rickey.org, is convinced the show is rigged, especially after Paula's error on Tuesday. In a blog entry from yesterday, he wrote about a potential "shocker" elimination next week. "We now have a couple of scenarios that could happen depending on how (producer) Nigel Lythgoe and TPTB (the powers that be) want this all to play out."

Writer Michael Bloomberg disagrees with Yaneza and wrote on the website foxesonidol.com that Paula simply made a mistake. "The gist of it is that when Paula screwed up and started talking about Jason's two performances when everybody had only sung once so far, some people are taking this to mean producers pre-scripted her comments and she read them all. I find this explanation entirely ridiculous, as there is a much simpler and much more reasonable answer. Indeed, Michael Slezak even mentioned it in his EW (Entertainment Weekly) website column... That possibility is that Paula saw the performances during dress rehearsal and took notes, knowing that she would be pressed for time on the live show. Then she mistakenly read all her notes."

On the Entertainment Tonight website at etonline.com, Paula explained via video (quite lucidly, may I add) that the decision to change the way contestants were judged that night was made at the last minute, so that in order to remember what she thought of each contestant, she wrote some notes and mistakenly read the wrong one.

Even CNN waded in on the conspiracy with an online poll showing that 55 per cent of respondents want Paula to stay on the show, while the rest, 45 per cent, wanted her fired.

Is American Idol scripted? Is it just a singing version of professional wrestling, which went on for years and years with people speculating that it was rigged? Of course, we now officially know that wrestling is all a big scripted show, but the mystique it managed to maintain for years kept it as a popular form of entertainment for millions of people. It still is, actually.

Personally, I'll be very disappointed if the show ends up being rigged or scripted. I'd like to think that likeability, talent and a devoted fan base truly matter and that the hours and hours of time invested into watching the show and voting actually do determine the results, and not just the whim of producers deciding what happens just in order to get high ratings. The show gets high ratings anyway. And why risk the obvious emotional investment that fans have in the show? That kind of commitment to a show is a rarity these days.

Paula's odd behaviour has been explained by illness. If that's the case, we should just all lay off and enjoy the craziness while wishing her well in her recovery.

n Brian Cormier is a writer and communications consultant. His column appears on this page the day after every episode of American Idol. He may be contacted at brian@briancormier.com or visit his blog at www.briancormier.com.