Dial Idol: T-H-E-Y Are the Top 2?

I cast 206 votes for Elliott Yamin in 2 hours from my landline in the Orange County, California 714 area code. My votes for him this week are less than half my usual total due to twice as many busy signals.

Is Dial Idol accurate? DI's results do not count or monitor American Idol votes via text messages.

Did Ace Young, Paris Bennett and Chris Daughtry earn enough text message votes to escape the bottom three?

My hunch is that Ace, Chris and Katharine McPhee probably benefit from text messages. Each week, as I have monitored the changes to Dial Idol results as voting moves from east to west, my time zone – Pacific – always boosts Kat's score. Over the weeks, Elliott Yamin's score has equalized across the time zones.

I have never posted a prediction this season but, if DI and my instincts are correct, the bottom three will be Ace, Paris and Kellie Pickler. I doubt that Ace received enough text message votes to escape the bottom. If American Idol discarded all of Kellie's Vote for the Worst votes, she might be in as much trouble this week as her off-key, off-tempo, awful performance merited.

I pray that Paris and Elliott Yamin live to sing another day. They were the best o’ the week. Along with Taylor Hicks, they are my top three.

With Dial Idol, it's a big if.