ABC/Craig Sjodin(LOS ANGELES) — The American Idol two-night finale begins Sunday night, as Gabby Barrett, Caleb Lee Hutchinson and Maddie Poppe face off against each other for the crown. Host Ryan Seacrest says right now, it’s hard to predict who’ll win because the voting is extremely close.
“I looked at the votes, it’s very tight,” Seacrest tells ABC Radio. “We haven’t really talked much about that. But during that last episode on Sunday, it was going back and forth between the finalists that had made it.”
But does Ryan think America picked the right final three? He admits, “I was sad to see some of them leave, especially Michael J. Woodard. I loved him, a lot of people loved him…but they’ve picked three great contestants who have their own style, who deserve to be there…each of ’em wants to be the one that wins.”
O.K., so how can Gabby, Caleb and Maddie go about being the winner? Judge Katy Perry tells ABC Radio, “In the top three, there are some people that are better at performance, some people are better at their artistic delivery, some people that are original tones. And so they just gotta know what their strong suits are and play those cards right.”
Luke Bryan agrees, saying that what the contestants need to do to win is “stick with what got ’em here.” But while he believes America “might know what they’re already gonna do,” he still thinks the contestants have to “keep turning it up.”
As previously reported, all three judges will perform on the finale, as will Bebe Rexha, Patti LaBelle, Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker, Yolanda Adams, guitarist Gary Clark Jr., and Kermit the Frog.
The American Idol finale begins Sunday night at 8 p.m. and concludes Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.