No, it's not just you -- even American Idol judge Simon Cowell believes Idol's sixth season finalists haven't been as good as some of the show's previous casts.

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"We're doing as well as we are doing with not a great cast at the moment, to be honest with you," Cowell recently told Entertainment Weekly. "They're not the best bunch of kids we've ever had."

Idol's sixth season is currently down to its Top 7 finalists, so nobody's won anything yet.  However recently ousted finalists Chris Sligh, Gina Glocksen and Haley Scarnato have all stated they felt they achieved a goal by just cracking the Top 10, allowing them to perform during Idol's traditional summer tour.

"I think that we suffer from Jennifer Hudson- and Chris Daughtry-itis, which is people who didn't win getting great careers and now a lot of the contestants believing it absolutely doesn't matter," Cowell told Entertainment Weekly. "Sometimes there's part of me thinking, 'You genuinely couldn't care less what we've got to say; everything's going to go your own way now.'"

Even Paula Abdul -- the Idol judge who frequently dishes the most upbeat and positive criticism to contestants -- seems to agree with Cowell.  "I just can't say that they're really good if they're not," Abdul told Entertainment Weekly. "I just can't anymore."

With the exception of Sanjaya Malakar and Phil Stacey, all of the season's remaining finalists still have a chance of winning Idol's sixth season, according to Cowell.

"It's as close as it's been in any season," Cowell -- who termed the competition a "five-way race" between Melinda Doolittle, Lakisha Jones, Blake Lewis, Chris Richardson, and Jordin Sparks -- told Entertainment Weekly.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
Christopher Rocchio is an entertainment reporter for Reality TV World and has covered the reality TV genre for several years.