Wow, I thought Colton Dixon might end up in the Bottom 3, but I did not expect him to be the lowest vote receiver of all. And after this being the first week without the save (which caused the power voters to come out in force for every contestant), we also know there is no way either Elise Testone or Hollie Cavanagh will be winning the competition after both yet again fell into the Bottom 3. Even with all her fans power voting for her survival, Elise was again in the bottom 3. In fact she has been in the bottom so many times I had to steal the grid from the American Idol Season 11 Wikipedia page to remember them all. This makes 3 weeks in a row for Elise and the third week out of four for Hollie. Eventually time will run out for both of them.
At this point the only contestant with the momentum to beat Phillip might be Skylar Laine, who has not been in the Bottom 3 for four weeks. After being saved, Jessica Sanchez seems to have lost something in her performances last night, so I do not think she has a chance of catching him either. And Joshua Ledet is a great vocalist, but I honestly cannot see him receiving more votes than Phillip. I thought Colton was his biggest competition, and without him there to help split some of the "female power votes" I cannot see anyone else stopping Phillip Phillips from winning. Phillip has the same likability and unassuming charm that helped Scotty McCreery win the title last year, but I am not sure if he will be able to produce as "mainstream accessible" of an album that can sell the million copies that 'Clear As Day' has. The only ones I thought could possibly sell a lot of albums were Colton, Skylar or Jessica (all with the proper coaching and custom selected songs).
Oh well, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season pans out. I will curious to see the new betting odds too, since Colton had actually taken over as the odds on favorite in front of both Phillip and Jessica. Actually, Jessica was the odds on favorite before she was almost eliminated, and now Colton was eliminated after being the odds on favorite this week. Hmmm, maybe things are not so good for any odds on favorite! (You can ask Pia Toscano about that one too!)