It’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame night on American Idol tonight. Which seems oddly appropriate, somehow, in this strangest of Idol seasons — fine one minute, not-so-fine the next — because there’s only one true rocker left in the bunch.

And, no, it ain’t David Archuleta.

Those Idol fans with long memories — long enough to go back, way back, all the way back to this time two years ago — will remember that it was at about this point in Idol’s season that consensus critics’ pick Chris Daughtry was told his Idol journey was over. Daughtry, the sole hard rocker to make the final four that year, exited the stage — and immediately went on to sell a gadzillion CDs. He’s still selling them, to hear the music charts tell it.

This time, music fans, and not just Idol believers, can only hope the same doesn’t happen to David Cook.

But it might.

Right now, this is the other David, David Archuleta’s, Idol to lose. In a terrific — if somewhat angry — post on The Huffington Post, that noted archival site for all things Idol, culture critic Chez Pazienza said as much, noting: “David Archuleta’s going to win American Idol — you may as well get that through your head right now.”

It doesn’t matter, Pazienza continued, that Archuleta’s “a short, somewhat frumpy kid who always looks like he just got his [behind] kicked for his lunch money at recess, or that his willowy voice conveys all the passion and soul of Muzak.”

No, the only thing that matters is that he has what it takes to win: The unwavering worship of every 12-year-old girl in North America.

It doesn’t have to be this way, Pazienza said.

Indeed not. In a lucid moment — which doesn’t happen to me too often — I came up with a simple, if unworkable solution: Change the vote! Not much, mind you. Just a minor tweak.

I propose that, for every vote a viewer casts for their chosen favourite, they commit to buying one copy of that singer’s CD, once it’s released.

Sure, the kids love David A. enough to vote for him 25 times in one night. But would they love him enough to buy 25 copies of his eventual CD?

Idol’s producers have already said they won’t limit viewers to one vote per phone number. One person/one vote may work in a democratic election — though not for the Democratic National Party, it would seem —  but in Idol it’s not who you vote for that counts, but how often. And that favours the tweener with time on his/her hands, and a cell phone within arm’s reach.

Which is why this is David A.’s Idol to lose. And it’s why it will be Jason Castro who faces David A. in the final, and not David Cook as everyone thinks. Call it a hunch. I’ve been wrong before — and, with any luck, I’ll be wrong again.

Here’s another possible solution: also simple, also unworkable. All grown-ups have to do to wrest back control of the culture — well, control of Idol, anyway —is confiscate their tweeners’ cell phones for just two hours after the show ends.

Two hours, no cell phone. About the length of time it takes Dancing with the Stars to tell people who will go home in any given week.

Only, again — not going to happen.

David A.’s fan base is nothing if not loyal. And passionate. And vocal. He’s just  17, they say. He’s a beacon of light in the dark, cynical, negative world that is the recording industry today, they say. He’s cheerful and he smiles, they say. He’s humble. He’s shy. He works hard, his fans insist — though Lennon/McCartney fans may take issue with that last one. There was that night he booted the lyrics to We Can Work It Out, remember — but, of course, that only counts now for Idol fans with long memories. (He was nervous, he later admitted.)

No, make no mistake. This is David A.’s Idol to lose. And anyone who knows anything about the culture today knows that, when it comes to pop-music/movies/or-TV, what the tweeners want, the tweeners get.

We live in the world, kids, and the world is thus.