Lip Sync Idol?

Not that this is an earth-shattering conspiracy, but have any of you noticed the lip-sync going on during the group numbers the last couple of weeks (and maybe even further back this season)? L and I have been watching this show since the first season, and I can't recall the group numbers being anything other than live, albeit cheesy, performances. I searched for corroborating evidence to post here, and while I couldn't find a HQ video to post (there is one crappy quality vid of last night's group-sing on YouTube - but it's hard to make anything out) I did find some interesting things.

First, I am not alone in being suspicious of the lip-syncing; click on the header above for a link to the brief LAist article on the subject. But several Idol sites mention the too-clean sound (and conspicuous lack of "breathing"), and the occasional audio-visual flub where one of the contestants is clearly not singing in time. If any of you TiVo the show, go back and check it out, apparently Michael Sarver did an especially poor job last week.

Second, while this subject has popped up on the official Idol Forums, the threads have been deleted! If you Google the subject, you get links to the Forum posts, but to the deleted threads; when you click on the "cached" link, the posts come up, and even reference the deletions of previous threads.

I, for one, would rather see the craptacular group numbers sung live. I don't think anyone is claiming the actual performances are lip-sync'ed in any way, just the group ones. It's one thing to have Kanye West AutoTune his way through a travesty of a fake performance on Idol, and another for them to perpetrate what is essentially a "fake" preview of the Idol Tour every week (which is mainly why I always thought they had the group numbers).

What do you guys think? Check out the recordings if you have 'em and weigh in.

-- K