Entertainment

WHY ADAM LOST

AMERICAN Idol” fans were left won dering what happened yesterday in the wake of Kris Allen’s stunning defeat of clear-cut frontrunner Adam Lambert.

Fox refused to say if the vote totals were even close.

The most intriguing report came from “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush who, early yesterday, twittered the message:

“Source at the top says votes were NOT close on ‘Idol.’ Kris blew out Adam Lambert.”

MORE: Allen, Lambert After ‘Idol’

VIDEO: Kris Allen Takes the Crown

How could that happen? Adam, the favorite to win “Idol” since Week 5 of the show, was beaten badly by the young, clean-cut Allen.

The argument that seems to hold the most weight was the “Red State/Blue State” rivalry between an over-the-top glam rocker from southern California and a church-going, married college student from Arkansas.

But many fans thought Lambert may have suffered from being the front runner for too long.

“I think he peaked a few weeks ago,” says M.J. Santilli, the author of mjsbigblog.com, one of the best-known “Idol” sites on the Web.

“What Kris lacks in excitement, he’s made up for in consistency, and he managed to pull out a couple of showstoppers . . . at just the right time.”

When church choir director Danny Gokey was eliminated from the show last week, the thinking went, the vast majority of Gokey fans threw their support behind dark horse Allen.

Then, there’s the idea that Lambert suffered too long from being a judge’s favorite — especially when it came to Simon Cowell.

As media consultant Michael Sands told Foxnews.com, “America had a grass roots campaign for a ‘good ole boy!’ There was just too much hype with Lambert.

“Everyone likes a person who just does the work.”

Some fans, meanwhile, wondered if Lambert’s over-the-top, flamboyant persona doomed him in the end.

“There can only be ONE reason [Lambert] was not crowned last night,” wrote “scalabrine” on nypost.com, “a potential cross-dressing homosexual is not America’s bread and butter.”

It seems unfair to say that Lambert lost because America is homophobic (Lambert has not said one way or the other if he’s gay) but the numbers — though secret — were believed to be overwhelming.

Perhaps there are so many theories about the upset because a staggering number of people, 40.1 million, watched the show’s last seven minutes. Still, it was not a great year for “Idol,” ratings-wise.

An average 28.8 million viewers tuned in to the “Idol” finale, according to Nielsen, making it one of the least-watched last episodes in the show’s eight-year history.