With Brooke White’s exit from American Idol last night, we’re down to 3 guys and 1 girl. Because the guys are David Cook, David Archuletta and the dark horse Jason Castro, the chances of an all-guy final are pretty high. Syesha, however, has stepped up her game the last several weeks, finally getting some approval from the judges. Sye is a good performer, and seems to have found her groove. She channeled a little Beyonce this week- and did a good job with her songs. Still, she was in the bottom 2 this week with Brooke. Brooke performed a very unfortunate “I’m A Believer” in the first round that was painful to watch., and was becoming even more visibly emotional and fragile each week.

Then Paula made the gaffe heard round the world. If you missed it, here’s what happened.

On Tuesday night, the show had a very tight schedule trying to get in 2 performances from 5 Idols in 1 hour. Ryan had told us the judges would be holding their comments until after the second round of songs. When the first round was finished, he turned the tables on the judges and asked for quick comments. Paula made a HUGE mistake and criticized Jason for his first AND second songs. She was reading from her notes, which I think she’d partly made during rehearsals. It was VERY awkward, resulting in another “Drunk Paula” moment (whether or not she was). The biggest problem, however, was that Jason ended up being criticized for a performance he had yet to give.

Idol conspiracy theorists are saying that because of this, Brooke was the sacrificial lamb for Jason. If Jason had been voted out, it would have seemed very unfair- the pre-criticism from Paula could have affected his second performance. The commentary on the boards had many accusing Idol producers of a possible fix, saying that this is why Idol never reveals the actual voting totals. Last night, at the beginning of the results show, Ryan acknowledged the web talk without going into detail, only saying that “Paula was part of the family, and we love her”. Apparently Idol got flooded with email- enough for the producers to have to address the talk in some way.

I’m not in the conspiracy camp. There were 48 million votes this week. Jason has a huge fan base, and no doubt fingers were dialing at warp speed in sympathy for him after the spectacle. Jason has more of the “teen and older” fan base than David Archuletta, who has the pre-teens and soccer moms. Jason also has indie fans and the Secret Aggie Voting Block! Brooke made Idol history this year by being the first contestant to have to start over on a performance- twice. She definitely had her fan base, but many were NOT in the Sunshine Camp. She’d begun to wear thin with a lot of fans, and more girls watch the show than guys. I think this is why BOTH Brooke and Syesha were in the bottom 2, despite Syesha’s decent performances. The girls are voting for the guys.

The final four will be very interesting. Next week is “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” week. Here is a link to a list of the Hall of Fame members. There should be an abundance of song and style choices, so we COULD see some of the best performances of the season. However, David Archuletta can NOT rock, and will have to choose a song from a rocker. It could be a problem, but there are still plenty of song possibilities for him. Archie is also wearing a bit thin with a growing number of Idol fans. He sounds the same on every song, his runs are predictable, he can’t seem to break out of his ballady box. He has a great voice, but he’s not the total Idol package that David Cook is.

Syesha could surprise, as she IS a good performer with an impressive set of pipes, and is able to show more than one side of herself. Jason is a wild card. He’s not gonna win, but he may beat Sye because of the female voters. But…America MAY want a guy-girl final, and that’s where things could get crazy! Next week could cement who the eventual winner is. I can’t wait for Tuesday!

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