American Idol Eliminates - The Final Three Revealed, Hope for Lambert?

We are now two eliminations away from naming the next American Idol, and Simon Cowell's prediction that Adam Lambert's duet skills may have bought Allison Irahetamore time in the competition turned out to be an unqualified prediction. Allison is out of the competition leaving American Idol an all boys contest from here on out. Lambert will be challenged by fellow males Kris Allen and Danny Grokey, and of the two only Allen was spared first from elimination, which could indicate that all the heart throb needs to do is keep up his game to be crowned American Idol; or not. (Although there was no real bottom three this week, it was all for effect.)

With much of the fandom expressing Cowell like glee for the Lambert/Irahetamore duet, predicting the American Idol winner may hinge on whether or not Allison's fans will now give their votes to Adam. Allison's style seems more compatible with Lambert than Gokey or Allen, so it would make sense that those voters who do not dispassionately stop contributing to the tally after Allison's elimination may break for Adam Lambert and turn the tables. Allison may no longer be in the game, but her voters are still out there and have just become a lot more influential towards the American Idol end game.

Once the game has narrowed, the voting gets very interesting based on this sort of vote splitting behavior - the audience expands towards the finale and those who vote religiously have to vote for someone, so trends can go out the window and safe bets are off. Certainly Lambert's existence in the bottom three for two weeks in a row would seem to indicate that his chances for American Idol victory are slipping away, but Allison's fans may hold the key to turning his chances around. Of course, Kris Allen's fast save tonight could be just more of Ryan Seacrest's signature hyperbole, creating tension out of thin air - that is why he is the task master of American Idol.