To be fair, all of Jason Castro's songs do sound the same.

For everyone who's seen the Verizon Wireless sponsored American Idol even once, it's clear Paula Abdul phones in her critiques from another planet. But in this clip from last night, where Paula Abdul commented on both of Castro's songs when he had only sung one, actually makes sense to me.

Let me explain: on every show the judges have previously seen all of the performances at the dress rehearsals, which is part of why you always see the judges talking to each other during performances, rather than listening to them.

(Also slighly deceiving, the montage of performances with accompanying phone numbers at the end of each show is from the dress rehearsal, not the live broadcast.)

Which is why the mistake was the producer's not Paula's; for the judging to be truly fair, the judges need to be seeing the performances for the first time along with the audience.

Paula isn't the only judge to have a preconceived opinion on the performance, she's just the most transparent about it.

Other Paula Abdul/American Idol related stories:

American Idol: The Paula Abdul Stalker

American Idol: Paula Abdul upskirt

Is American Idol becoming Gay Idol?