THR digs into the oft-whispered notion that years three, six and nine are among the Fox show's weaker offerings. Will season 12 suffer a similar fate?

Fox

There’s an oft-whispered theory among American Idol insiders: the notion that every third season of the show is inevitably a weaker one.

Before we dive deeper into the coincidence-turned-conspiracy, let us first say that seasons three, six and nine featured many finalists that we absolutely adore, but there’s no denying (and some of those very contestants would even admit this) that in the annals of Idol history, they don’t quite compare to the year of, say, Adam Lambert or season seven’s battle of the Davids (David Cook vs. David Archuleta).

So why is this triple play more often a stumble? Season three and season nine seem to have suffered from a certain sameness -- the former’s battle of the divas, first featuring Jennifer Hudson, Fantasiaand LaToya London then coming down to four girls including Diana DeGarmo and Jasmine Trias, didn’t have enough variety, and you could make a similar argument for season nine, when finalists Lee DeWyze, Crystal Bowersox andCasey James all wore their acoustic guitars as a badge of honor.