Hold on tight, everybody.  You're about to see me agree with my colleague Gordon Pepper more than you've ever seen before.

In last week's State of Play, Gordon dissected the so-called "Chaos Theory" of "American Idol."  Working in a business where a totally different chaos theory is tossed around at least in jest, I wondered what exactly we were talking about here.

But I must say that Gordon is right on target.  We'll get to this week's Idol rankings shortly.  But consider this:  going into the finals my top three were Jessica Sierra (now out), Bo Bice (slipping rapidly), and Anwar Robinson (who has been consistently inconsistent).  My top three now:  Carrie Underwood, Constantine Maroulis, and Vonzell Solomon.  What do all three of these people have in common?  They've all shown a diverse range of singing and performing talent.  They've crossed genres.  (You can argue that Vonzell hasn't done that quite so much...and I wouldn't argue against you...but she did branch out a bit.)

In addition, Carrie, Constantine and Vonzell all have star qualities; and NONE of them is like either of the others.  

On the other hand, consider the post-Idol situation.  Why were Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken successful with their albums?  Because they sang music that was popular with the same people who liked them on "Idol."  Justin Guarini, Fantasia Barrino, and even to some extent, Ruben Studdard...didn't.  You might consider Tamyra Gray to be the biggest Idol success story...after all, she's singing, acting, and songwriting.

Anyway...as you're voting, consider whether the person you're going to be voting for is going to still be singing the kind of music you want to hear AFTER Idol.  If not, maybe it's time to vote for someone else.  

One final note on this for now...it's still VERY early, relatively speaking.  Just three weeks ago, I would've banked on a Bo/Nadia final.  Now a Carrie/Constantine final looks just as likely as that first option.

The Week That Was...

On "American Idol"...
One note:   Let's NEVER do the Musicals week again, okay?  Especially not if we're restricting to Classic Musicals.  Songs that lack popularity -- or even recognition -- from your show's target audience aren't going to go over well, even if they're sung brilliantly or with a new/different twist.

Two weeks ago, the Idol rankings showed almost a dead heat among eight of the finalists.  Last week...we went to a 5/5 split.  This week, there was even more spreading out of the remaining finalists.  

There were no clear "winners" for the week, but Anwar Robinson's strong performance was a pleasant surprise, probably keeping him in the competition a week or two longer than he might've been before.

The weakest performances came from the same people who've been down at the bottom recently -- Scott Savol, Anthony Fedorov, and Nadia Turner (who was much improved but still behind the others; and I thought overperformed her song choice).

So here are the rankings through four weeks.  Note, as always, these rankings are my opinion only and are as subjective as each of our votes.

Jason Elliott can be reached at stormseeker@mchsi.com.