Another week, another AI analysis. We're getting down to the wire. Though this post is hitting the blog Wednesday evening, the analysis itself, like last week, was done Wednesday morning, before the results were aired.

Here's where we stand on influential blogs and number of posts around each contestant:

David Cook: 618 sites / 8352 posts
David Archuleta: 428 / 8553
Syesha Mercado: 232 / 10188

While influencers love her, Syesha is the pick to head home this round. Though the influencers disagreed with the judges on her Fever performance (they loved it), the overall sentiment was that her performances were not strong enough to break into an all-David finale.

The frontrunner, according to the influential buzz, is David Archuleta. Yes, the influencers love to poke fun at his penchant for "eye squinting" - and despite the fact that the number of sites and posts buzzing about David Archuleta doesn't immediately signal an Idol winner, the positive influencer sentiment here is much stronger than that around David Cook. Buzz around David Cook's last two performances was not favorable - the perception being David Cook will make the finale by the skin of his teeth.

Is positive influencer reaction to David Archuleta an indicator of his inevitable win? Or is the fickle nature of the blogosphere always one step ahead - or behind - voting behavior? The answers to come, finally, next week.