Final 11 Results

American Idol "Winner"-- Jennifer Hudson (yeah, you wish, Seacrest).

Well, that was a strange night, wasn't it? From Stevie Wonder pulling a Melissa McGhee lyric flub to Naima "Vanna White" Adedapo to Hulk Hogan's random appearance to Casey Abrams complete lack of self-restraint, tonight's Idol broadcast felt a bit like a three-ring circus.

At any rate, you know it's always going to be a crazy night when Ryan opens by telling us something "shocking" is going to happen. Though in all reality, Casey's "blindside" elimination came as no surprise to many of us Idol experts (including me) who predicted his downfall. But what was mildly shocking was how utterly scripted the Judges save seemed-- "Stop the music, Ryan!" Thank the lord JLo at least offered up yet another astute round of criticism (echoed far less eloquently by Randy, as per usual).

Anyway, let's move on to some rankings, shall we? The following is in order of who's currently most likely to win-- and remember, Idol history tells us that anyone appearing in the Bottom 3 is virtually incapable of winning (which narrows our current winner pack down to six-- so sorry Stefano, love you!). Placements also take into account performer consistency (hence a ruling Pia) and likelihood to continue to grow (hence a flatlining Thia).

Top 11 Most-Likely-To-Win Rankings:
1.) Pia Toscano
2.) Scotty McCreery
3.) James Durbin
4.) Lauren Alaina
5.) Jacob Lusk
6.) Paul McDonald
7.) Stefano Langone (Bottom 3: Final 11)
8.) Casey Abrams (Bottom 3: Final 11)
9.) Haley Reinhart (Bottom 3: Final 13, 12)
10.) Naima Adedapo (Bottom 3: Final 12)
11.) Thia Megia (Bottom 3: Final 11)
12.) Karen Rodriguez (Bottom 3: Final 13, 12)
13.) Ashton Jones (Bottom 3: Final 13)

My Idol instincts tell me that the Top 5 of this list are polling head-and-shoulders above their competitors, but only time will tell. There are lots of Idol voting trends to factor in as we continue our slow march to the finale (especially when the numbers get small and voting blocks more predictably shift from contestant to contestant), so keep checking back for some expert predictions!

Till Next Week,
Z