Not only is American Idol stacking its deck of supposedly amateur contestants with pros, judge Randy Jackson has helped propel into Idol's top 24 an artist he used to work with at MCA—the same kind of cheating for which he's nailed Simon Cowell.

In 1999, Carly Smithson sold about 300 copies of her record for major label MCA and was promptly dropped. Jackson started at MCA in 1998 and was based at its Universal City, California, headquarters, working for four years as a senior veep of A&R, the division responsible for scouting, developing, and pushing new artists, according to Jackson's own bio at americanidol.com. In other words, he had a front-row seat (and possibly some responsibility) for Smithson's unfortunate run at the brass ring on MCA's dime. It seems highly unlikely that a top level scout such as Jackson would forget such a big-time flop, especially when she came back and stared him in the face on Idol (even if she did change her name from Hennessy to Smithson).

VoteFortheWorst.com first pointed out Smithson's status as a music industry loser and was the first to make the connection between Jackson's A&R stint and Smithson's work for the label on Jan. 28, but Smithson kept moving through the rounds on Idol. The incident calls to mind another similar controversy over contestant Thomas Lowe. Deadline Hollywood Daily reported last year that Lowe, in addition to possibly being involved in a nude photo spread, was in a band signed to BMG while Cowell was at the label. Ironically, it was Jackson who jumped on Simon's case on the show when the connection was revealed.

"Simon ever try to sign your band?" Jackson quizzed Lowe on the show. Lowe answered, "No, but I believe Simon was working for BMG at the same time I was there." Jackson got wide eyed and sniffed, "Well, Simon ... small world." Cowell looked embarrassed and Jackson scolded again, "Small world." Lowe's Idol run was cut short.

A message left before office hours this morning at Jackson's rep's office were not yet returned. But in a February 3, 2006, Rolling Stone article Jackson said Idol is supposed to be about rooting for the underdog, the raw talent. "We're not out to find the poster kids and say, 'Let's sign them.' We're out to find the best undiscovered [talent] and really herald that."

Radar first called attention to possible American Idol pro-singer "plants" Smithson and David Archuleta almost a month ago. Both are in the Idol top 24 now. The show has focused on Smithson and Archuleta quite a bit, too, but somehow never managed to devote any screen time to either contestant's past successes—or failures.