Never is “American Idol” better than when seemingly second-rate contestants emerge from the shadows to blow the annointed frontrunners out of the water.

Rocker David Cook has managed to pull that off a few times this season already, most memorably with his rock take on Lionel Richie’s “Hello” before he even made it into the Top 12. Still, the 25-year-old hasn’t garnered anywhere near the attention seen by babyfaced teen David Archuleta or Irish diva Carly Smithson.

But on Tuesday night, Cook may have shed the “dark horse” mantle once and for all. His gutsy transformation of “Billie Jean” into a rock ballad prompted judge Randy Jackson to call him “the most original, the most bold contestant we’ve ever had… dude, you might be the one to win the whole lot.”

Archuleta, on the other hand, got mixed reviews for his performance of “You’re the Voice,” with Simon Cowell telling him it reminded him of a theme park performance.

Still, on the “Idol” forums, Cook lags Archuleta in the number of posts viewers have written about him. After Tuesday’s show, hoever, at least one die-hard “Archie” came out to give Cook a hand:

“He’s showing that my second favorite (him) isn’t too far behind my first (David Archuleta, obviously)”

Keep going, David (Cook). One more week and you just might take over that other David once and for all.

Simon Cowell plays the King of Mean on the panel of judges on “American Idol,” telling some wannabee stars they must be deaf if they think they can sing, calling others’ dancing hideous, and telling one female contestant she looked like the Incredible Hulk’s wife. But a story emerged this week that shone a new light on 48-year-old Cowell — he gave a couple whose three-year-old daughter is suffering cancer a check of $162,000 to pay off their mortgage.

The bombastic Brit, who was recently estimated by Forbes magazine to earn about $43 million  year, was so touched by the story of Madelaine Stoen when she appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s U.S. TV chat show that he declared he would be her “guardian angel.” Madelaine’s parents Amy and Randy Stoen from Claremont, Minnesota, were struggling financially after the youngster was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and would take turns traveling more than 100 miles from  home each day so she could get treatment.

After presenting the couple with a check, Cowell was quoted on the Oprah Winfrey Web site saying that he’s only just learned about the joy of giving. “I didn’t realize that. It’s taken me 48 years. It’s going to catch on, this, because it is a very, very good feeling,” he said.

Wonder if he’ll be as generous to the remaining finalists in ”American Idol.” 

Maybe it was the stripping. Or maybe he just wasn’t up to snuff.

Either way, David Hernandez won’t be strutting his stuff on “American Idol” anymore.

The 24-year-old Arizona native, who reportedly was a stripper before making it onto the singing competition, got the boot on Wednesday night following what judge Simon Cowell called a “corny, verging on desperate” performance of the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.”

Indeed, Hernandez’ rendition of the tune on Tuesday night’s show seemed more than just a little forced, especially as he danced his way through the mostly female audience. Once you know a guy has stripped for other men, it’s sorta tough to believe he was really digging all those girlie squeals, not to mention singing about a female object of affection.

Still, the quality of Hernandez’s performances all season had been spotty at best, so his demise didn’t come as a major surprise. As Hernandez stood on stage with the other two of the bottom three contestants, Sayesha Mercado and Kristy Lee Cook, Cowell said “America got this absolutely spot on.” For the full “Idol” elimination story, click here.

How the mighty has fallen.

Tuesday night on “American Idol,” 17-year-old David Archuleta officially lost his place as the singing competition’s frontrunner. Not only did the Utah native forget the lyrics (always a kiss of death on ‘Idol’) to The Beatles’ “We Can Work it Out,” he never recovered from the mistake. Judge Randy Jackson dubbed his uninspired performance “very forced,” while Simon Cowell bluntly called it “a mess.”

To make matters even weirder, Archuleta said in his pre-recorded interview that he had been nervous about having to choose a song from the Lennon/McCartney songbook because he “wasn’t too familiar with the songs.” Seriously.

For Archuleta, the performance was a dramatic about-face. Just two weeks into the competition last month, the Los Angeles Times dubbed Archuleta “the Chosen One” and said “the competition is on the brink of collapsing in the face of a talent who lays waste to all before him.”

Unfortunately for the baby-faced Archuleta, his fall from grace happened to coincide with a downright shocking reversal of fortunes for a 22-year-old Californian contestant who goes by just one name: Chikezie.

The affable Chikezie had been shrugged off by many as a bore, narrowly missing elimination last week. But on Tuesday night he bounced back with a passionate performance of “She’s a Woman” that started with a bluegrass twist and morphed into an all-out rock song. The judges were floored, with Jackson asking “Who knew?” and Cowell saying Chikezie had changed in just a week.

One fan on the ‘Idol’ message boards summed it up best:

“Chikezie was HOTT tonight!”