I have one thing to say about last night's results.

Oops.

Apparently though, I wasn't alone, as the shockwaves were felt throughout the entertainment world - and in the bathroom of where I work, as I got to see my piece dangling in front of me while I was dangling something else.

So was it a surprise? Sure it was. Should I have kept with my original prediction that I made a few weeks ago, when I predicted a Blake/Jordin final? Sure I should. However, will it change who I thought was going to win the whole thing since April, when I called Jordin the front-runner and favorite? Nope. Melinda was not going to win Idol, but she did leave a week earlier than I thought.

So why did Melinda leave and why did I think she wasn't going to win?

1.Her song selection. Not only did we get songs that most of the public has heard of, but they were tended towards an older audience. The older audience is the group that praises Melinda and writes constant prose about how she is going to win Idol.

However, the older audience, as we have seen time and time again this season, does not vote. Who votes? the 12 year old Ashley Purls of the world, who cry every time they see their favorite Idols perform. if you don't realize the power of the young voter, who has kept Sanjaya and Chris much longer in the competition than they probably should have been, you realize it now.

As I said on yesterday's column, diversification and getting as many voters as you can is the key to winning this competition. As I have said on almost every column this year, Melinda Doolittle has sang nothing but old standards, and eventually, that was going to catch up with her. Eventually happened last night.

2. Musical Diversification - This goes back to song selection, but for a different reason. Let me go back to something else I said at the end of my column yesterday -

"Jordin has now tackled Bon Jovi and Rodgers and Hammerstein, nailed Martina McBride's Broken Wing, and on a night that she could have wussed out and picked Donna Summer, selected Gwen Stefani and sang a very good 'Hey Baby'. Make no mistake, Jordin Sparks is the most well-rounded singer in this competition, and if there's anyone who's stuck in R and B land, it's Melinda."

That came into fruition last night in a powerful way. Jordin had a huge fan base to draw from with all of the genres that she has tackled. Melinda had yet to sing anything that was made popular in the past decade. Even Blake has a greater musical repertoire than Melinda, and as Randy Jackson pointed out, is not afraid to take a musical risk. Melinda never got out of R and B old standards and it cost her.

3. Chaos Theory - Every year, we always get SOME sort of upset, because people, who assume that the results are a fait accomplii, don't vote. Everyone knew that Melinda was going to be in the finals...so they didn't vote. The one reason why I thought that Blake had no shot was because I thought the votes from the departed Lakisha were going to go directly to Melinda and Jordin. Based on the fact that the vote total actually went down from last week, the votes from Lakisha...didn't go anywhere. That, added to the fact that the people voting for Blake KNEW he was in trouble (as he was in the bottom two last week) and KNEW that they had to vote their little fingers off, did so.

So what did Melinda in? Complacency from a voting block that wasn't as big as Jordin's or Blake's to begin with because she didn't sing songs that either connected or were as diverse as what Jordin and Blake sang.

During the mid-season, I thought Jordin Sparks was going to win Idol. Now with Melinda gone, I think that it's hers to lose. We'll see this Tuesday what happens as the American Idol finale has now turned very, very interesting.

G.