Get Ready For Some Filler: American Idol Returns TONIGHT

Also returning: the famed and fabled MamaPop American Idol Open Thread. Tonight! Over at (captcha-free, refresh-friendly) MamaPopTalk. So dust off your login, gussy up your avatar or just create an account already and join us. It really is a rocking good time, even when we're listening to the 27th person butchering that damn Edwin McCain song that is just never, ever going to die.

Details on one of the more iiiiiinteresting plotlines to watch for this season after the jump. (Warning: Possible spoilers for a couple of the singers in the Top 50.)

Those pesky geniuses over at VoteFortheWorst.com have uncovered what looks like a heapload of possible plants in this year's contestant line-up. Far from being undiscovered talent, quite a few of them have already had their shot at fame -- including previous record deals and major-label albums.

The top 24 have not been decided yet, but leaks abound about who went to Hollywood and made it into the top 50. Among them:

Irish singer Carly Hennessy. During season 5, Carly was pimped by Simon Cowell before the show even started as “the only person I can genuinely remember from the auditions.” Simon said something similar about Carrie Underwood the season prior. Carly was fortunately dropped from the ranks for not having a visa. Nigel Lythgoe, one of the obnoxious executive producers of Idol, is already back to hinting about her even though she’s never said a word on the show. So why is Carly getting so much hype, and what happened in her past?

Carly Hennessy is the epitome of a record industry failure. She was brought to America by MCA Records and recorded a bland pop album that sold only 300 copies (that’s not a typo). Then she faded into obscurity. Now, a mastermind behind the scenes at Idol has decided that instead of just signing Carly to an Idol-affiliated record label, she should be pushed down America’s throats as a contestant on American Idol. Back with brand new tattoos and an "edgier" sound, the record execs connected to Idol are probably hoping that Carly will finally catch on when she’s featured on the #1 TV show in the country. To make things even messier, one of the songwriters for Carly's album also wrote songs for the debut albums of Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, and Kimberley Locke. There's a definite Idol connection here, folks.

Vote For the Worst has dug up failed professional careers, questionably current professional careers, past reality show appearances and connections to the show for 13 contestants so far. It's actually all pretty interesting. A couple of them are stretches (one kid won Star Search when he was 12 and had a meeting with a record label once!) but a few of these people really are a FAR FAR cry from the old days of true undiscovered talent, when it really did seem like you could go audition with a bunch of your friends and make it big.

So it'll be verrrrry interesting to see how the show responds to all this information, and if they let it shape the final 24 -- will the suspected "plant" Carly make it through, or will the big bad blogosphere ruin her carefully crafted comeback?

Either way, I'll be watching, for I cannot quit this stupid show.

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