'Idol' Top 24: Who has the most Twitter followers?

by MJ Santilli

Tags: American Idol, TV

Comments +
Add comment

Image Credit: Michael Becker/Fox

American Idol voting results have always been kept top secret by producers until the winner is revealed under a rain of confetti in May. That leaves Idol fans scrambling for way to assess how their favorite is doing from week to week.

Ever since Idol allowed contestants to have individual Twitter and Facebook accounts, fans have been keeping a week-to-week record of how the contestants stack up against each other. Of course, Twitter and Facebook followers are not a foolproof way to assess who is winning the Idol game, but it can offer some interesting information.

So who’s winning now? Looking at the number of followers for the Top 24 — which were revealed last night — it’s no surprise to see popular contestant, Heejun Han, at the very top of the list. After all, not only did Heejun enjoy plenty of screen time, but his edit was extremely sympathetic. Who doesn’t love this adorable guy with the dry sense of humor and a soft spot? Here’s hoping his tweets are as funny as his on-screen bon mots.

The remaining 3 in the Top 4 — Phillip Phillips, Colton Dixon, and Eben Franckewitz — have all been featured prominently on the show. Colton has an advantage — as a Season 10 Hollywood contestant, he had a built in fanbase. Notably, the Top 4 are also all male. We don’t see a female on the list until Jessica Sanchez appears at No. 5.

But who’s at the bottom? Elise Testone and Aaron Marcellus, two contestants who didn’t get much screen time at all. We’ve seen plenty of Creighton Fraker, who auditioned in Pittsburgh by way of New York City, but his face time has not translated into twitter followers yet. But as of 4:30 pm ET, Creighton hasn’t tweeted at all — illustrating that how savvy contestants are about social networking will drive their numbers too.

These 1 day twitter totals will fluctuate as new frontrunners and favorites emerge. We’ll see in May how accurately the numbers predict which contestants come out on top.

Heejun Han	5222
Phillip Phillips	5198
Colton Dixon	3655
Eben Franckewitz	2570
Jessica Sanchez	2015
Skylar Laine	1388
Shannon Magrane	1035
Baylie Brown	1029
Reed Grimm	999
Chelsea Sorrell	937
Joshua Ledet	856
Hollie Cavanaugh	831
Adam Brock	817
Deandre Brackensick	815
Brielle Von Hugel	738
Jeremy Rosado	730
Jen Hirsh	725
Haley Johnsen	666
Chase Likens	582
Erika Van Pelt	579
Hallie Day	479
Creighton Fraker	473
Elise Testone	454
Aaron Marcellus	450