Beware the curse of the "American Idol" runner-up!

For the third time in as many years, the show's second banana has suffered a debilitating in-concert stumble, leaving some to wonder if there is some sort of bewitching pox that comes with being Vice Idol (while others maintain the whole thing could just be avoided with a good pair of non-skid work shoes).

In 2004, Diana DeGarmo slipped down a flight of stairs during an American Idols Live Tour stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan (see " 'Idol' Runner-Up DeGarmo Injured After Falling During Tour"), tearing a ligament in her foot. Then, almost exactly one year later, Bo Bice broke his foot while attempting some serious "jump-ups" at an Idols Live date in Manchester, New Hampshire (see "Bo Bice Breaks Foot Onstage, Finishes Concert").

And on Tuesday, 2006 "Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee tripped backstage during a tour stop in Charlotte, North Carolina, fracturing her left foot and completing the triumvirate of trauma.

According to Roger Widynowski, a spokesperson for McPhee's label, RCA Records, the songstress was gearing up to perform at Bobcats Arena when she suffered the accident. And much like DeGarmo and Bice before her, she managed to finish her set, singing two songs while wearing "a pair of gardening slippers," according to Widynowski. She was then taken to a local hospital where X-rays revealed she had suffered a hairline fracture.

Despite the injury, McPhee plans on completing the Idols Live jaunt, which is scheduled to wrap on September 24 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (see " 'American Idol' Top 10 Add 20 More Shows To Summer Plan").

"Nothing's changed. She's still going to perform, just in a temporary cast," Widynowski told MTV News. "She's in some discomfort, but she's not letting that get in the way of her doing her thing."

The fractured foot is just the latest setback McPhee has faced on the tour: She missed the first three weeks of shows after doctors ordered her not to sing due to bronchitis and laryngitis, and when she was finally cleared to rejoin her fellow Idols for a July 27 show in Pittsburgh, her flight was canceled due to bad weather.