Have to say I was a little bit surprised that
Stephanie Edwards was eliminated but it was either her or Chris Richardson so something had to give. Lots of 'steam' as they say on the offshore gambling forums (into 3/1 third favourite to be eliminated she was!
).
Gambling 911 reported that
BetCRIS paid out a few thousand dollars to some lucky punters because of Stephanie's elimination.
A well thought out deduction or something to raise the hackles amongst the conspiracy theorists out there (particularly when coupled with some random AI publicist who blabbed on Howard Stern's radio show that the eliminations were less than random)?
Jordin Sparks has seemingly gotten quite a few good notices and has moved into third favourite to win the whole thing. On the surface, Jordin has more 'star quality' than either Melinda or Lakisha but hey, didn't Chris Daughtry have more 'star quality' than Taylor Hicks? The best contestants don't win.
A couple of the offshore books have match-ups (which contestant will last the longest?) props but they're a bit random.