American Idol Forecast

Apparently “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell is on the same page as the readership of TVGuide.com, and both think David Archuleta is destined for greatness.

In last week’s TVGuide.com “American Idol” Power Rankings Poll, readers overwhelmingly named Archuletta the leader of the pack with 64% of the votes, and this week he remained number one with 40.4% of the votes.

Each week, TVGuide.com surveys its readers asking them to rank the final standing contestants. The results are announced at www.tvguide.com/IdolPollTop16 every Monday morning.

Overall, the male contestants are faring better than their female counterparts with Archuleta, Jason Castro (13%), David Cook (11.2%) and Michael Johns (8.8%) occupying the top four spots in this week’s poll.

Rounding out the pack are Brooke White (8.5%); Carly Smithson (6.6%), David Hernandez (3.3%), Kristy Lee Cook (2.8%); Ramiele Malubay (2.4%); Amanda Overmyer (1.7%); Syesha Mercado (1%) and Chikezie (0.2%)

In other AI news, executive producer Ken Warwick told TVGuide.com last week that he doesn’t care about contestant David Hernandez’s stripper past. “The truth is we’re never judgmental about what people do to earn a living. They’ve gotta put food in people’s mouths,” he says.

For three years, 24-year-old Hernandez worked as a stripper at Dick’s Cabaret in Glendale, Arizona, where he danced nude and gave lap dances to a mostly male clientele.

“We’ve had strippers on the show before…We’re never judgmental about people who do things like that. If it were some sort of heavy porn, then maybe we’d have to take action. But certainly not on this,” Warwick told TVGuide.com.

In previous seasons, Idol execs have avoided establishing hard-and-fast rules about a contestant’s past. (When it was discovered that Frenchie Davis posed topless for a website, she got the boot, but when racy pics of Antonella Barba showed up online, she was allowed to stay.)