Will political pundits, pollsters and Simon Cowell never learn? Calling a contest this early in the "American Idol" race is never a good idea. Last year Cowell had extravagant praise for LaKisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle, and neither finished in the top two.

Now that former "Star Search" winner David Archuleta is in Simon's sights, will Cowell's love eventually cost the crooner? Maybe not. Archuleta is already a teen idol in Search: Not only does David inspire more lookups than the rest of the contestants, he has a three-fold lead when it comes to pre-teen and teen searchers.

Another teen idol waiting in the wings is the dreadlocked Jason Castro. Although he was criticized for using his guitar as a security blanket, Castro has since become the fastest rising contestant (+216%) among the youth searches. Nearly tied for third place: the petite Ramiele Malubay with the giant vocals, and the sassy Danny Noriega.

Yes, Carly and Michael are among the favorites, but David's leagues ahead. Given "Idol" history however, the strategy for those two would be either to lower Simon's expectations, get a shocker ousting like alum favorite Chris Daughtry, or score Ellen Degeneres' sympathy.