American Idol has a long history of the best singer in a given season finishing in third place, so Joshua Ledet can take some comfort in that. Maybe.

The unassuming preacher’s kid from Westlake, La., blessed with incredible vocal range and the ability to control it, fell just short of the finals. This comes about despite – or perhaps partially because – Joshua being the clear favorite of the three judges, whose constant standing ovations for his performances became something of a joke, and created some resentment from fans of other singers.

Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez will face off Tuesday in the season finale. Idol will therefore have yet another champion out of the “white guy with guitar” mold, or its first female winner in five seasons – and its first to have survived in the competition via the Judges’ Save, without which Jessica would have finished seventh. A win for her would vindicate the Save for all time, so for anyone who has been absolutely opposed to its usage or just ambivalent about it, prepare for the worst.

Joshua came out of the same African-American church background that produced previous Idol successes George Huff and Jacob Lusk, but he was more consistent than those gentlemen, and had more truly big moments, stumbling only occasionally (Billy Joel week was a struggle for him). He also showed his ability to handle more contemporary or uptempo material, but curiously, one of the few weeks he did something modern, Bruno Mars’s “Runaway Baby,” he made a surprise appearance in the bottom three. In the end, there might have been a tension between Joshua’s biggest fans, who loved the soul throwback stuff, and his perceived need to show he can sell records in 2012.

Joshua won’t have any trouble getting a record deal – Jimmy Iovine has made that clear enough in recent weeks. His mission now is to show he can be current. As for the two remaining, Phillip won the post-show coin toss on Thursday, and elected to sing second next Tuesday, as they always do. He and Jessica will perform a favorite song from earlier in the season, a song picked for them by 19 Entertainment boss Simon Fuller, and their “winner’s song.”