Professional #2 = Carly Smithson (the irish chick who got tossed out of the comp two years ago due to visa issues.
Her former name is Carly Hennessy. She has a $2 million dollar deal with MCA and her debut album tanked a couple years ago.
Either A) she's honestly trying for a second shot at stardom; or B) she has a very smart agent that thought her image/popularity needed a boost so he enrolled her in the biggest talent show in the world hoping that some sort of discussion would come up about her past record and people would go out and buy it, all while watching her rip it up on AI.
Either way, it's (quite obviously, judging by the talent that is going through the doors) becoming a show of more "up and coming" talent, rather than amateur talent. And, either way, I'm probably still going to watch it as there is a lot of talent on that stage...and there's nothing else on TV in that time slot anymore
