‘American Idol XIII’ top 6 rankings: Are Jena Irene, Alex Preston the likely final 2?

“American Idol XIII” has been an uneven season, but we are now starting to get to the point where the favorites will rise to the occasion, and some of the filler will fall. We see it as being two more inevitable boots coming up, and then a final four that may be a little bit more of a bloodbath … at least if Jessica (who we have a lot to say about right now) recovers from being in the bottom two.

Our rankings do factor voting results and performance quality equally, so taking everything into account for the entire season, we’ve come up with a pretty solid list of the contenders at the moment.

6. CJ Harris (last week: 7) – CJ has really mastered the art of doing just enough to get through to the next round, but also not enough to be considered a favorite. Sooner or later, this guy’s luck is going to run out, and his ceiling is probably the top 5 when you look cumulatively at all of his voting results.

5. Sam Woolf (6) – He’s benefited heavily from the save for the past couple of episodes, but sooner or later, that momentum is going to stop if he continues to perform David Gray songs that are listless and really not someone his age should be doing if he wants votes. We respect him sticking to his guns and his desired style of music, but it’s hard to do that and also win.

4. Jessica Meuse (2) – We could write a lot about Jessica right now. She’s a very talented performer who has been given the Haley Reinhart treatment by the judges: They’ve been unfairly hard on her for most of the season, and held her up to a different standard either because they expect more, or are too afraid to be hard on the younger people.

Here’s the way that Jessica can look at this now: She can either lash out and be upset about her treatment (which we understand), or use this to say “I’m going to be that much better than everyone else, and be so great that the judges look stupid.” If she wants to have a shot at winning now after being in the bottom two, she needs to try out the latter. The judges may never be nice to her.

3. Caleb Johnson (4) – Caleb knows how to rock, and generally how to entertain. It’s just hard to find anything new to say about him at this point. Unlike Jessica, the judges have been nice to him, and he’s been consistent for a long time this season. We don’t feel like he will win, but he seems golden until around the final four.

2. Jena Irene (3) – We didn’t love Jena’s “Creep” as much as the rest of America did, but we do agree that she’s a serious contender right now, and the season might be turning into a two-singer race. Heck, we’d love it if it did get between Jena and Alex. They’re both creative, interesting singers who try different things and have given nary a bad performance all season.

1. Alex Preston (1) – Still, we give Alex the edge for now given that he’s never been in danger, and past “American Idol” history dictates that he is probably getting the most votes of the two. Both Alex and Jena are probably going to get a shot at a career regardless, though, and should each fare better than anyone from season 12.

Who is your favorite from the top six? Share in the comments below, and head over here to get some more TV updates worth singing about via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: Fox