Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Something rare is happening on American Idol.

Two weeks ago, Skylar Laine and Hollie Cavanagh stood in the bottom three alongside Heejun Han.  And Heejun went home, despite entering the finals on a wave of popularity, even if it had more to do with his sense of humor than his singing ability.

This week, Elise Testone and Hollie Cavanagh stood in the bottom three alongside Deandre Brackensick.  And Deandre went home, despite the lobbying of Jennifer Lopez and despite teenage good looks that threatened to take him far deeper in the competition than he deserved to go.

Don’t look now, Idol viewers, but seven contestants remain.  And four of them are females.

That hasn’t happened since Season 7.

That’s only happened once since Season 3.

I mean, this is a major departure from Idol’s recent voting trends.

Last year,  Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart were the only gals remaining at this point.  Two years before, it was Siobhan Magnus and Crystal Bowersox.  The year before that, Allison Iraheta and Lil Rounds.

This year, we have Hollie Cavanagh, Skylar Laine, Elise Testone and Jessica Sanchez.

Girl power?  On American Idol?

Well, Erika Van Pelt called for a little of it upon her elimination earlier this season.  And Jimmy Iovine called for it a couple of weeks ago when critiquing Jessica.

I’m not about to suggest that Idol is on the verge of an all-girl finale.  That’s happened just once, in the Season 3 Fantasia versus Diana DeGarmo mismatch.

But someone’s clearly voting for the gals this year.

And it’s a refreshing change for a show where it looked like a girl might never win again.