American Idol: Top 3

Over the previous five seasons of "American Idol," a distinct pattern has emerged about Top 3 Night: whoever sings first gets eliminated. Every single time. Nikki McKibbin, Kimberley Locke, Jasmine Trias, Vonzell Solomon and Elliott Yamin all went first on this night, and all went home.

Your "Idol" conspiracy theorists have taken this as evidence that the producers deliberately sandbag the person they don't want to make it to the finals by placing them first, and by saddling them with lousy or too difficult songs. My buddy and fellow "Idol" blogger Dan Fienberg argues that all five of the above people were clearly outclassed by the time Top 3 rolled around, that they were going to go home regardless, and that if the producers started playing into the pattern, it's only to acknowledge the obvious pecking order.

So what, I wonder, will the conspiracy theorists make of tonight's episode, in which Jordin Sparks -- who even a non-obsessed fan can recognize has been the producer's favorite for quite a while -- goes first and gets some unideal songs to sing in rounds one and two? Are they trying to break the First Curse? Do they want to remove any appearance of favoritism? Or is everybody just completely overthinking this?

To read the rest, go to NJ.com, but you can comment here.