Back for more ... the Final Four!

(Click on the chart to view standings)
To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later and this is about the time when things like the NHL Playoffs, the Miss New Hampshire Pageant and general laziness take over and push the Idol Pool Blog off the rails.  So I apologize for the lag in updates but let's face it, no one's reading this thing anyway.  Alright enough apologies ... let's talk IDOL!

Since we last spoke we've had 3 eliminations, a judges save and a lot of shake-up in the pool standings.  There weren't a whole lot of surprises in the last few weeks.  The Judges save happened about when we thought it would and we said goodbye to the second tier of contestants.  Lil Rounds' elimination played spoiler to a lot of people's chances in the pool but after nine weeks of mediocracy, it couldn't have come as much of a surprise.  Anoop and Matt were crown favorites but you just didn't get the sense that either of them had a chance to win. Now, however, the cream has risen to the top and we're left with 4 contestants who all have a chance at winning.  

In the pool, Melissa Clement remains in first place, where she's sat comfortably since week 5 but losing her winner (Lil) will make it pretty hard for her to close the deal.  Melissa's put a lot of points on the board already though and if Kris or Allison can pull an upset, she could just hold on to win.  

In the Adam Lambert camp, Joanne Trahan has the best shot to win.  Joanne's picked well so far and with 3 of her top 4 remaining she'll be unbeatable if Adam can win it all.  No offense, Joanne but this Idol blogger hopes you're wrong! Honorable mention to Adam Fleishman who actually has Adam winning but has picked so poorly to date that he's already been mathematically eliminated and has a shot at picking the winner and still finishing dead last - IMPRESSIVE!

A few people have Danny Gokey slotted to win and among them Larry Shay looks like the favorite, but if we see a Gokey/Lambert final, Kathleen Amantangelo will push by Larry for the top spot.  

Nobody has Either Allison or Kris picked to win but if they can keep the other two out of the finals, it will leave the door open in the pool.  We'll save those scenarios for another post should we get a surprise this week. It's rock week this week, which shouldn't scare any of the contestants but the Swami says, "Adam Lampbert is showing cracks in the armor and he could be out sooner than a lot of people think... possibly much sooner!"