To follow up on Bobs , a prediction:

If Kellie Pickler is not eliminated tonight, she's Final Four.

If Kellie Pickler is not in the Bottom Three tonight, she's The Anointed One and the winner of AI season 5.

Not necessarily. She could have beat out third place and ended in fourth place by just a few votes; we'll never know.

If the Pickler isn't booted tonight, it only means one thing .... The world isn't fair. Hmmm, what an interesting notion. Look Pickler is a hot looking babe. She should have a very comfortable career. But last nights performance was one of the worst ever, at this point in the competion. Still, I've seen a number of posts that, while not picking the Pickler first, does not pick her last. That is simply impossible for anybody that isn't, either too young understand how to assess talent, too stupid, or insane. So ... If the Pickler doesn't go. It might mean her 'fan' base is too strong to overcome, until possibly the very end. Perhaps not at all. It might mean that her 'looks' will get her through one more week and thats all.

It's the 'crapshoot', you've heard tell about.

the rick

Not my point

Mike, I've not begun, other than a mental outline, the Power Rankings for this week.

I am inclined to agree with your first statement while, just as strongly, taking issue with your second.

More to come, but at first thought, good observations and analysis, regardless of whether I agree with you.

I think you missed my point. She could have come in fourth last night, thus beating out third place by a small margin. And if she did come in fourth last night, she could very well be in the bottom three next week, and then going home, which means she might not be the winner. We only know the bottom three people. How did you know she didn't come in fourth? If she has another massacre next week, she could be going home. If she dodges a bullet this week, it doesn't make her safe for subsequent bullets.

If Kellie is not in the bottom three tonight (and she wasn't), she may very well be the surprise upset going home next week.

In some ways, she might have been better off being in the bottom 3. Her fan base would have been on fire for at least the next couple of weeks. I still think it is highly doubtful that she goes home in the next couple of weeks, but her being safe tonight left that door open just a crack. A few things would have to take place in order for it to happen, in my opinion. One, she would have to have a mediocre performance, maybe not the train wreck of this week, but something clearly not good. Two, the judges would have to take it easy with her during the critique, Three, she would have to be sandwiched in between two clearly superior performances, and Four, her fan base would have to be resting on their laurels after seeing her survive this week after what could be one of the worst finals performances of all time.

Yup, exactly what I was thinking. Pick up your jaws, folks. Kittyn and I agree on something.

Kellie probably won't go out this week, but we have our best shot of being rid of her before the final three.

I'll give two arguments as to why I now think Kellie Pickler is the Anointed One and the winner of AI5...

1) What does she have to do to be bottom three? If that wasn't bad enough...

2) Last year. Callbacks. Round one. Carrie stinks the joint out, forgetting words and the whole bit. Eerie similarity to last night's bullshit.

The only problem is that if we have a near miss, with her being bottom 2 and surviving, it will probably be enough of a firecracker to her fans to catapult her right into the top 3 and probably the top 2.