[BarneyFife]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

It's official: There's a new king of the hill on "American Idol," and his name is also David.

For weeks, callers to the "Idol" phone voting line belonging to David Archuleta have been the busiest, according to DialIdol.com. DialIdol distributes a piece of free software that lets people rapid-dial from their computers; in exchange, they agree to let DialIdol know (anonymously, I assume) how many busy signals they're getting on their line. DialIdol then crunches the data to predict, with uncanny accuracy, who's up and who's down. Contestants who have far more busy signals on their line than others are considered safe from elimination; those with relatively low busy counts are in danger of being ousted.

Until last week, little Archuleta was topping the DialIdol "Predictions" chart. But then David Cook was the beneficiary of a highly empathetic storyline in his sick brother Adam Cook (and yes, I realize how crass it looks to refer to a young man with brain cancer as a "storyline," but for the purposes of explaining the outcome of the program, how can you not?). Cook shot to the top of the DialIdol busy-signal strength list, though Archuleta, Jason Castro and even Kristy Lee Cook (oops!) were also considered safe. DialIdol's good, but it ain't perfect.

Anyway, fast forward to this week. I thought Archuleta might be bumped back up to No. 1, but no, this has suddenly become David Cook's contest to lose.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/

David Cook is clearly the best singer left. The young kids (especially girls) are voting hundreds of times for David A. and Jason because of their looks. The contest is about singing, NOT looks.