I was hoping that after their homecoming weekends that both Joshua Ledet and Jessica Sanchez would be energized to come back and give some truly "WOW" performances to show they could actually win American Idol. After tonight, however, I believe they are in a very important battle for second place. Do not get me wrong, ending up runner-up in American Idol is a pretty big deal. If either Lauren Alaina or Crystal Bowersox has ended up at #3 I do not think they would have had the success that they have both enjoyed so far in their careers. And then there is Adam Lambert who definitely used his runner-up position to maximum potential, so coming in #2 versus #3 is a huge deal, even if #3 does usually receive a recording contract.
Following the current DialIdol busy signals, it currently appears that Joshua Ledet will be joining Phillip Phillips in the Finale. For the past three Top 3 nights, DialIdol has been very accurate, but this season DialIdol has definitely been losing its accuracy. If we follow the current busy signal percentages it will be Phillip winning with Joshua second and Jessica third. However, note that Jessica usually receives a later west coast surge in voting that may bring her closer to Joshua. It is interesting to note, however, that the differences in busy percentages are nothing like they were last year when Scotty was destroying both Lauren and Haley in busy signals. That contest was not close at all. This time the differences in busy signals are more like in Season 9 with Lee DeWyze, Crystal Bowersox and Casey James, although the actual percentages are much higher.
I also had to check the typically fairly accurate Idol elimination poll at USA Today's Idol Chatter. They agree with the DialIdol busy signals saying that Jessica will be leaving tomorrow night to make it a two guy finale. Only 14% of the poll takers believe that Phillip is leaving tomorrow night.
From the video footage of the homecomings it definitely felt like Phillip had the same level of "winner's suppport" from Leesburg that Scotty had from Garner last year. Not only was he the only contestant who performed with a full band (instead of recorded backing music), his performance actually felt like a real concert, similar to Scotty's huge performance in the park where Josh Turner appeared. Yes, Phillip cried during his parade, had a lot more interaction with his fans (Jessica almost seemed scared of hers), and had an open air full concert feel to it, unlike Joshua's dark, indoor evening concert and Jessica's performances where she seemed very separate from the crowd. Both Joshua and Jessica seem to be performing for their crowds, Phillip seems to be performing with his. If only Dave Matthews had appeared at Phillip's performance!
And the big winner tonight was definitely... AT&T! Really, both Jessica and Phillip learn Jimmy Iovine's song pick on their new Beats by Dr. Dre through their HTC One X on the AT&T network? It is not like we do not see the Jordan Sparks AT&T/Beats commercial twice every broadcast of American Idol, now they put it in the show... twice! And Jimmy, of course, spells out the product names precisely since he makes his cut off of every sale. And then what popped up when I cast a few votes online on www.americanidol.com/vote? Well, you can see the ad that I saw posted above (that is not a real ad!)