American Idol picked their seventh season winner tonight. Long predicted as a battle of the Davids, both David Cook and David Archuleta fought the good fight right down to the finish. Ryan Seacrest informed the public that the record for most votes was smashed last night, as they received over 23 million more votes than ever before. A whopping 97.5 million votes came in, with the winner taking a mere 56% of the votes.
Naturally we have correspondents in the hometowns of Cookie and Archie. Mikalah Gordon is in Cookie's hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, while Matt Rogers traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah near Archie's hometown.
The Top 12 return for a group performance of "Get Ready." They are all dressed in white, and joined by the stars of So You Think You Can Dance. It was a great performance but I wish the dancers had a bit more of a chance to shine.
After the break, there's no introduction and you can hear someone speaking. It sounds like they're saying "where is he." Not sure if Seacrest was supposed to be there or not, but Cookie comes out singing Chad Kroeger's "Hero." He's then joined by Archie. They sound good together.
Then we get a nice long, but funny, promo for "The Love Guru" which stars Mike Myers as Guru Pitka. The Davids meet him. Guru tells Cookie to shave, then pokes fun at Archie's young age. Ryan has Guru Pitka come out onstage, on a motorized pillow. He tells the judges he loves them, then predicts the winner will be a US citizen, aged 16-28 and named David. After he leaves, Ryan rides on the motorized pillow, nearly driving off the stage.
Syesha Mercado comes out to sing "Waiting for You" with Seal. It was a nice performance, but nothing really that special about it. The next performance was by Jason Castro. Ryan says that interviewing him was like pulling teeth. Jason sings "Hallelujah" again, with no guest performer, just himself. I really missed him even if it was just two weeks.
The Ford commercial this week just recaps the other commercials. Then Ryan presents the Davids with a Ford Escape Hybrid for each of them, from the Ford company of course.
The girls perform a medley of Donna Summer hits, then they are joined by Donna Summer herself to sing her new song "Stamp Your Feet." Donna was helped down the steps by the Davids as the dancers returned to dance. At one point Ryan is even onstage dancing. Dusty and I are heavily annoyed by Amanda Overmyer. She clearly doesn't want to be there and is just pouting and walking where she is supposed to. Thank God she didn't last any longer than she did.
Ryan then introduces two people who left before their time - Carly Smithson and Michael Johns. They sing "The Letter" together, sounding very good.
Jimmy Kimmel comes out to poke fun at everyone. He asks how much he should tip Sanjaya for valet parking. We then get a clip of Simon's mean comments, set to music.
The Top 6 guys do a group performance. The bottom 4 guys sing "The Summer of '69." The two Davids then sing "Heaven" before introducing Bryan Adams who comes out to sing a couple of his songs. I liked the guys performance better than the girls, but then I like Bryan Adams better than Donna Summer too.
Jordin Sparks pimps the AI attraction at Disney World. Then David Cook performs "Sharp Dressed Man" with ZZ Top. He's even playing guitar. I'm sure Cookie was thrilled with the performance, he looked like he had fun. It was great. Then we went back to Kansas City with Mikalah who had Cookie's music teacher with her now.
Brooke White and Graham Nash performed "Teach Your Children" together. They sounded great. They picked the perfect guest performer for her.
The Jonas Brothers perform their hit song "S.O.S." The one brother has a Sanjaya-like haircut, don't know their names, but it was the one without a guitar. He has Sanjaya eyebrows too. After their performance, we get a clip of the worst singers from the auditions, including Alexis, the warped record guy, and Reynaldo Lapuz, aka "I am Your Brother." They even have Reynaldo come out to sing his song, he's joined by a marching band. His song actually sounds good by the marching band. Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul join him onstage at the end.
One Republic comes to perform their hit song "Apologize." They have the orchestra playing along and everything. David Archuleta comes out to join in. They sound very good together. Then we throw it over to Matt back in Salt Lake City where his grandparents are present at the party.
Jordin returns to sing "One Step at a Time." She's gained weight since she was on the show just a few weeks ago. That dress isn't very flattering for her either.
Ryan introduces a clip of Gladys Knight and the Pips. He says it's an audition of Pips from 1972. It's actually an old clip of Gladys with Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr as the Pips. The money raised from downloading that clip on iTunes will go to charity.
Carrie Underwood returns to sing "Last Name." Wow that skirt she's wearing is teeny tiny. I think even Mariah Carey wore a longer skirt. So she's singing about being a loose woman and dressing like one now too. Or am I getting the wrong message in there somewhere?
As a side note, during this particular commercial break there was a Guitar Hero commercial featuring a kid doing a Tom Cruise impression from that movie where he's in his underwear in the living room playing air guitar. The kid in question was David Archuleta. Apparently there was a David Cook version earlier that I missed while running to the kitchen. Cookie's commercial was better I think.
The Top 12 then perform a George Michael medley. The girls start off with "Faith" then the guys do "Father Figure." All of them break into "Freedom" to be joined by George Michael who sings "Praying for Time."
Ryan throws to the judges for final thoughts. Randy said he is happy for them as they are both winners. Paula tells them this is the beginning of their careers, not a finale. Simon congratulates both of them, then apologizes to Cookie, as he was verging on disrespectful to him last night. He doesn't care who wins, they've both done terrific.
By 12 million votes, David Cook is named the winner. He cries as Ryan congratulates him and then lets him thank his fans. He then sings the winning crappy, sappy song "Time of My Life."
I'm happy that Cookie won, if only to give a big old FU to those who were going on about how it was clear that David Archuleta would win. I still would have liked to see AI have to deal with Pappa Archuleta as the AI winner's dad, but we know he'll be a pain even as runner-up.
I was very happy with the finale this year. Normally the two hours drags on as we get just one guest performance after another. Apparently the producers decided that they had enough talent in the Top 12 to get some great performances out of them instead of bringing in too many guests.
So that's it for another season of American Idol. After all the hype, I think it mostly lived up to expectations. The problem with being good out of the gate is that we expect it every week. There were some dull moments, but this season's idols are overall a very good crop. This may turn out to be the most successful year yet. Only time will give us that answer.
winona1717 said: Now I'm ready for "So You Think You Can Dance" so I hope you cover it, from the beginning!
I will have my laptop in front of me tonight and I'll try to manage a recap. My recaps of SYTYCD might not be as thorough as my AI ones though. I'll need time to grow into reporting on dancing
"Now you know why lions eat their young" Capt. Phil Harris
obviously the person who wrote this doesn't know who the jonas brothers are. there's nick the youngest, joe the middle, and kevin the oldest. and the son is S.O.S. not call i'll never get. the one with the guitar is either kevin or nick. if he sang the verses for the song it was nick, if he didn't it was kevin.
American idol was nothing but talent this year. everyone in the top 10. i think the judges did an amazing job picking them this year . not one time did i have to turn the volume down.. way to go simon paula and dog. job well done.
Guest said: obviously the person who wrote this doesn't know who the jonas brothers are. there's nick the youngest, joe the middle, and kevin the oldest. and the son is S.O.S. not call i'll never get. the one with the guitar is either kevin or nick. if he sang the verses for the song it was nick, if he didn't it was kevin.
Thanks, 'cause I totally give a crap who's who in the Jonas Brothers.
"Now you know why lions eat their young" Capt. Phil Harris
I am leaving in asia and i saw a season marathon of AI
i notice something not right in the top 24.
Who did not deserve in the top 24
For the guys
1.Garett Haley
2.Jason yeager
3.Luke menard
Well my reason that they should not be in the top 24 is not because they bad singers they did not deliver a spectacular performance and it was forgetable.I think it was a mistake that garett, jason c. and luke to be in the top 24 i think the judges made a wrong decision.
guys who did not made in the top 24 but my opinion should be are.
1.colton swon
2.drew poppelreiter
3.brandon green
4.josiah leming
I think those guys should be in the top 24 not jason c.
luke or garett in my opinion
for the girls who did not deserve to be in the top 24
1.amy davis
2.kady malloy
Well the reason amy davis should be in the top 24 is that she so boring and fogetable.Well as for kady malloy well she is much better singer than amy however
she is so robotic i think again judges made a mistake.
The girls should be in the top 24 but they did not
1.lorena pinot
2.nyesha go
I like both of them if you don't know nyesha she is a filipina auditioned in in san diego she is a very good singer and i heard her voice and is very good.
Well i hope somebody will respond with my comments
winona1717 said: Now I'm ready for "So You Think You Can Dance" so I hope you cover it, from the beginning!
Done! My goodness that was difficult. Wasn't in the mood to type for 2 hours last night, so I watched last night and typed it up this morning. That might be the pattern for the audition rounds, so I can just take some notes on names then type it all up easier later.
Guest said: Who did not deserve in the top 24
For the guys
1.Garett Haley
2.Jason yeager
3.Luke menard
They always put through some people who don't deserve to go through. But then they complain when America starts to vote them on even further. We wouldn't have lame people to vote on (Sanjaya anyone?) if they wouldn't put them through to begin with.
Guest said: guys who did not made in the top 24 but my opinion should be are.
1.colton swon
2.drew poppelreiter
3.brandon green
4.josiah leming
Don't be too sad for Josiah. I think things worked out better for him by not making it through. He just got a pretty good record deal with Warner Brothers and will probably have a lot more freedom to create his music than anyone who made it into the Top 24. I'm not sure what the restrictions are exactly, but my impression is that the Top 24 have to wait a certain time period or deal with 19. Those who get rejected have no such restrictions.
"Now you know why lions eat their young" Capt. Phil Harris
Guest said: Darn...I TIVO'd it and missed the commercials because I Fast Forwarded through them...and I already deleted it! I hope they're up on YouTube tomorrow!
After thinking about it for awhile, this is how I picture their futures:
Cookie goes on to make an awesome album that will make him the most successful Idol ever, surpassing even Daughtry in greatness.
Archie's first CD will sell by the boatloads as well, but then time will pass and he will fade from memory, much like what happened to HWMNBN. I realize I'm courting danger with that type of comparison, but I think it's a fair one.
"Now you know why lions eat their young" Capt. Phil Harris
I beg to disagree Curlio, I think Archie is gonna do well in the future, though he still needs a lot of growing up to do.. who knows... in the future he will have better taste in music and with a voice like that.. Sky's the limit for the kid.
I agree Cookie will do well and perhaps give Daughtry a run for his money...PEACE
I'm channel surfing tonight and just ran across "The Soup" on E! They just featured some clips of how David Cook is already giving Sparkles (Seacrest) crap during radio and TV interviews...
They said it best, "OH YEAH! This is our once and future American Idol!"
American Idol picked their seventh season winner tonight. Long predicted as a battle of the Davids, both David Cook and David Archuleta fought the good fight right down to the finish. Ryan Seacrest informed the public that the record for most votes was smashed last night, as they received over 23 million more votes than ever before. A whopping 97.5 million votes came in, with the winner taking a mere 56% of the votes.
Naturally we have correspondents in the hometowns of Cookie and Archie. Mikalah Gordon is in Cookie's hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, while Matt Rogers traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah near Archie's hometown.
Then we get a nice long, but funny, promo for "The Love Guru" which stars Mike Myers as Guru Pitka. The Davids meet him. Guru tells Cookie to shave, then pokes fun at Archie's young age. Ryan has Guru Pitka come out onstage, on a motorized pillow. He tells the judges he loves them, then predicts the winner will be a US citizen, aged 16-28 and named David. After he leaves, Ryan rides on the motorized pillow, nearly driving off the stage.
Syesha Mercado comes out to sing "Waiting for You" with Seal. It was a nice performance, but nothing really that special about it. The next performance was by Jason Castro. Ryan says that interviewing him was like pulling teeth. Jason sings "Hallelujah" again, with no guest performer, just himself. I really missed him even if it was just two weeks.
At one point Ryan is even onstage dancing. Dusty and I are heavily annoyed by Amanda Overmyer. She clearly doesn't want to be there and is just pouting and walking where she is supposed to. Thank God she didn't last any longer than she did.
Jordin Sparks pimps the AI attraction at Disney World. Then David Cook performs "Sharp Dressed Man" with ZZ Top. He's even playing guitar. I'm sure Cookie was thrilled with the performance, he looked like he had fun. It was great. Then we went back to Kansas City with Mikalah who had Cookie's music teacher with her now.
After their performance, we get a clip of the worst singers from the auditions, including Alexis, the warped record guy, and Reynaldo Lapuz, aka "I am Your Brother." They even have Reynaldo come out to sing his song, he's joined by a marching band. His song actually sounds good by the marching band. Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul join him onstage at the end.
Jordin returns to sing "One Step at a Time." She's gained weight since she was on the show just a few weeks ago. That dress isn't very flattering for her either.
Ryan introduces a clip of Gladys Knight and the Pips. He says it's an audition of Pips from 1972. It's actually an old clip of Gladys with Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr as the Pips. The money raised from downloading that clip on iTunes will go to charity.
So she's singing about being a loose woman and dressing like one now too. Or am I getting the wrong message in there somewhere?
The Top 12 then perform a George Michael medley. The girls start off with "Faith" then the guys do "Father Figure." All of them break into "Freedom" to be joined by George Michael who sings "Praying for Time."
By 12 million votes, David Cook is named the winner. He cries as Ryan congratulates him and then lets him thank his fans. He then sings the winning crappy, sappy song "Time of My Life."
I was very happy with the finale this year. Normally the two hours drags on as we get just one guest performance after another. Apparently the producers decided that they had enough talent in the Top 12 to get some great performances out of them instead of bringing in too many guests.
