I apologize for not writing my normal American Idol post last week. I was on a week-long trip with my youngest son and didn’t get to watch the show until this weekend.

Instead, I wanted to look back and see how we got to where we are — down to the final four.

Before I get there, I want to give America the stank eye for eliminating Skylar Laine. Other than the fact that she was mostly a country artist (which by the way didn’t hurt Scotty McCreery last year), she seemed to be clearly the easiest voice to market when it came to putting out an album. She needed to make the top four for this season to make any sort of sense.

Which means, little Hollie Cavanagh slips through the cracks again. She’s getting very close to Jasmine Trias territory who was a competitor from season 3 who kept slipping through the cracks. There’s no way she was a better singer than LaToya London and there’s no way that Hollie is a better singer than Skylar.

Let’s get to the folks who have already been eliminated.

13. Jeremy Rosado – Big Pun was as bland as could be and was the perfect person to leave first.
12. Jermaine Jones – Hey Jermaine, quit pretending to be someone else.
11. Shannon Magrane – She was far too young and out of her league. If she came back in a couple years, she’d probably be perfect.
10. Erika Van Pelt – Looking back, she probably left a few weeks too early, but when she changed her hair color, she read the tea leaves.
9. Heejun Han – Unfortunately for Heejun, he left a little early too, but it was more so because of his big FU Jimmy Iovine performance of Billy Joel’s My Life.
8. DeAndre Brackensick – He was a one-trick-pony and my San Jose homeboy probably overstayed his welcome.
7. Colton Dixon – Colton is talented enough to still be around, but it was his overly sensitive vibe that killed him in the end. Not everyone likes Twilight man.
6. Elise Testone – My droopy cheeked girl did her best, but like James Ingram once said, sometimes your best isn’t good enough.
5. Skylar Laine – I think she’s going to sell records. She needed to be in the final four and probably the final three.

Now that it’s the top four, I’m a bit confused. The winners of this show have been dominated of late by fair-haired, fairly bland young males. Scotty McCreery, Lee DeWyze, Kris Allen, and David Cook are the past four winners. If we go by the trends, it seems that Phillip Phillips has the American Idol winner pedigree. In fact, he may be Taylor Hicks’ cooler, little brother. And he’s really been the least “promoted” of the four remaining singers.

All that being said, here’s how I think they’ll finish:

4. Hollie Cavanagh – I am completely happy that she’s finally doing well. But why is she still around? She was seemingly the most popular of the least popular, sticking around by the skin of her teeth. But I do think her time has run out. While she’s doing much better, standing next to the other three contestants, it’s pretty clear that she’s out of her league.

3. Phillip Phillips – While he has the pedigree to win it all, he’s fairly quirky. While Lee looked stoned half the time, I wouldn’t call him quirky. And Kris Allen was too clean cut to be quirky. Taylor Hicks was quirky, but he appealed to the moms. I think Phillip is great, but I think he’s going to end up behind Jessica and Joshua who seem to be just a bit higher class.

2. Joshua Ledet – If this show were fair, he’d win it. Then again, Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert didn’t win the show. I think he may be the most talented singer on this show since his American Idol “idol” Fantasia. But the most talented singer doesn’t always win. I think it’ll be close, but I think Jessica ekes it out.

1. Jessica Sanchez – She was my early front runner to win the entire thing. Joshua started to get out in front of her, and probably still is, but there’s something about the way she reacts to the audience that I like. From a charisma standpoint, I think she feels the audience and gets them to respond to her better than the rest of the contestants.

All that being said, this has been an enjoyable season and I think the four best singers in this group (Jessica, Joshua, Skylar, and Phillip) are all better than Lee DeWyze and would’ve won season 9. Actually, Heejun could’ve beaten Lee.

The last three weeks wil be good television and as long as Hollie doesn’t win, I’m all good. If Hollie wins, we riot.