American Idol determined its next three eighth-season finalists last night, with Thursday night's live results show revealing that Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert had advanced to the Top 12 finals after receiving the most home viewer votes for their performances during Wednesday night's broadcast of the season's second semifinals group. These three join Alexis Grace, Danny Gokey and Matt Sarver in the finals.

On Wednesday night, Iraheta nailed “Alone” by Heart, Allen performed “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson and Lambert busted out “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones.

Three more performers will be taken from group 3 and the final three will be selected as wild cards by the four judges. More than 25 million people voted following the Wednesday night telecast of American Idol. An amazing number and up from the 24 million mark set last week. While this year’s American Idol has had some controversy, a new judge, and some format changes, the viewers remain loyal.

Kris Allen was definitely the surprise of the evening, as he passed to the next level of the competition although his chances were not so high. The 23-year-old Arkansas native joined Allison Iraheta and Adam Corkery in becoming the latest additions to Season 8’s Top 12 and he seemed the most surprised of us all! Allen is also a shocker because conventional wisdom had shone favorably for pretty Megan Joy Corkery to advance.

The other two slots in the final twelve went to the favorites from Wednesday night. The judges all loved Allison Iraheta, a favorite from Hollywood week. She gave a great performance on Wednesday and received high praise from all four judges.

The 16-year-old high school junior from Los Angeles is being compared to "Idol" season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson. Allison stands out from the crowd with her dyed red locks and funky style. After being selected, Iraheta said, "I'm just so friggin' happy right now!"

FOX announced that Tuesday, March 3 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), the last set of 12 semifinalists (Arianna Afsar, Felicia Barton, Kendall Beard, Ju’Not Joyner, Scott MacIntyre, Nathaniel Marshall, Kristen McNamara, Jorge Nuñez, Lil Rounds, Von Smith, Taylor Vaifanua and Alex Wagner-Trugman) will perform live in the hopes of winning America’s vote.

Unlike American Idol's seventh-season semifinals rounds which began with 24 semifinalists and determined the season's Top 12 finalists by cutting the two male and two female semifinalists that had received the fewest home viewer votes after each of the semifinals' three performance rounds, Idol's eighth season is dividing the season's 36 semifinalists into three performance groups and advancing each group's top male vote-getter, top female vote-getter, and the next-highest vote-getter to the season's Top 12 finals.