McPhee, "Lost," "American Idol"

After last night's episode, the sports books are giving Taylor Hicks prohibitive odds to win this season's "American Idol:" At one site, you'd have to wager $17 to win a mere buck, and what's the fun in that. Katherine McPhee, on the other hand, has slid to 5-1 odds at one book and 4-1 odds at another.

Which means no point in watching the two-hour leviathan "AI" installment tonight; there seems to be little sense of mystery as to who'll win.

Instead, you can see if JJ Abrams has figured out a way to lure back the "Lost" fans who have been abandoning the show with his show's season-two finale in which Michael prepares to sacrifice half the cast in order to rescue his son from the goofy-beard contingent. (Just switch over at 9:55 to see how wise conventional wisdom is.)

In an effort to hold out some hope for Katherine, Yahoo! reports that a lot more people are doing online searches for McPhee than for Hicks, to which we reply, well, no (rectal extrusions) -- have you looked at the two of them? "AI's" ostensible core audience, women over 30, search for Hicks twice as much as McPhee, though.