American Idol

GO DAVID COOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guitar Hero w/ David Cook commercial mimicking Tom was hilariously awesome!

Oh I so hope it is David Cook....this is the best show they have ever had...don't you think?

I was so thrilled to see Graham Nash...it's about time rockers got recognition.

Wow - I'm shocked! David Cooke won by 12 million votes?!!! I guess I'm just an old fart after all - I really liked David A better. Seems David C's rock style is more popular - also I suppose he does exude more sex appeal than sweet baby-face David A. Oh well......

WOW did I say WOW???? LOL

Congratulations to David Cook - he sang the closing song extremely well tonight! 

But for me - the totally best part was seeing and hearing Graham Nash again with Brooke singing one of my all time most favorite songs ever by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young...Teach Your Children!   That was such a thrill for me because I saw them in concert every chance I could in the 70's.  Tonight's AI was really well done.

I still want an album from Jason and David A.  Great show tonight!

hanna

A big yay from the land down under who couldn't vote      Yay, yay,yay   America I think you got it so right!!!!!!   Both David's are great but the right one won.... yay....... 

Yes, and he is so young. My prayers go out to him. Thank goodness it is treatable.

I couldn't read this thread last night because I didn't want to find out who won before I saw it.  WOW was what hubby and I said when the winner was announced because I thought it was going to be David A when I wanted David C to win.  Either way, they are both winners and will do well.  I can see myself buying a CD from David C but not David A, yet anyway. 

The thing is, the show is/was so awful that it was actually fun to watch. Knowing that we're not going to get the results until the last 10 minutes frees us up to just be as snarky as we want while watching all the filler. That thing with the USC marching band -- wow, totally horrible, but we were rolling on the floor laughing and the whole family sang along "you are my brother".

We've been pulling for David Cook so were happy with the results. I think he seems like a nice guy. I do think his "rocker" reputation may be a little overblown -- he seemed perfectly happy singing the syrupy closing song and doing the guitar hero ad. He seems to have some idea of what being commercial is going to take.

Posted at 7:33 AM ET, 05/22/2008

"American Idol": David Slays David

A record 97.5 million votes were cast for the Two Davids Tuesday night, "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest says at the top of Wednesday's two-hour finale. That's the same, he explains, as if every single person in Canada, Spain, Ireland and Australia had cast one vote.

And what an infomercial it was! Only four minutes in, the Idolettes are already shilling for the Fox network's summer series "So You Think You Can Dance."

Not coincidentally, Janice Dickinson is seen in the audience, shouting, "I love you!" at some poor unsuspecting Idolette onstage, by way of plugging herself and her Oxygen reality series, "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency."

By 8:13 p.m. they are shamelessly hawking the Paramount flick "The Love Guru," who, Seacrest insists, is the official "American Idol" guru. Of course it's Mike Myers playing Guru Pitka. And, just like the previous night with the whole boxing robes and gloves gag, David Cook seems way too comfortable for a rocker guy helping to promote this flick. The Two Davids go to meet Guru Pitka at his ashram. David Cook, his hair still looking like a freshly thatched roof, though the here-again-gone-again Coroner Munchkin sidecurls are gone again, greets Myers with the movie's faux salutation, "Mariska Hargitay."

Baby Elmo Archuleta, meanwhile, looks utterly miserable, listening to Myers talk about how he, Baby Elmo, is very young but soon will have hair "in weird and wonderful places."

"It was a very 'interesting' session -- I had no idea what he was talking about," Baby Elmo says, uncomfortably. Cook, on the other hand, vamps: "I thought his advice was contradictory 'cause I've read his book" -- something no self-respecting rocker would do.

The Two Davids are handed the keys to Ford Hybrid SUVs because, Seacrest says, they got great feedback on their starring moments in this season's Ford Music Videos.

Around 8:45, ABC late-night guy Jimmy Kimmel gets to do a few minutes of stand-up: "I valet-parked outside -- how much should I tip Sanjaya?" Da-dum-dum!

Not until 8:55 do we see one of the Davids -- Thatched-Roof David -- finally get to sing a whole tune. It's "Sharp Dressed Man," with ZZ Top. They've got a tour coming up this summer! What are the odds?

Last year's winner Jordin Sparks is living the "Idol" dream, we're told. "But why should I have all the fun?" she asks from Disney World. We agree.

Turns out, she shouldn't. You, too, can audition just like on "American Idol" at the American Idol Experience at Disney World in Florida, she says.

"You get to live the dream at the place where dreams come true."

Minutes later, Sparks magically travels all the way from Disney World in Florida to the [Cellphone Company] Theatre in downtown Los Angeles to sing live for the "Idol" audience. But why did they dress her in Mylar and send her to the Brooke White Dance Academy?

Failed Idolette Syesha Mercado gets to sing with Seal, lucky girl.

Jason Castro has to sing "Hallelujah" again, by himself again, while chicks in the audience squeal -- again.

Carly Smithson and Michael Johns -- this year's shoulda coulda woulda "Idol" finalists -- sing a duet, Chris Daughtry's audition song, "The Letter."

Poor Graham Nash is stuck singing "Teach Your Children" with Nanny Brooke. But he's touring this summer with David Crosby and Stephen Stills and, presumably, they wanted to plug it on "Idol." Apparently Nash drew the short straw.

The six Idolette chicks sing "She Works Hard for the Money" by way of introducing Donna Summer, who wants to perform her new single, "Stomp Your Feet," while those pesky "So You Think You Can Dance" dancers throw themselves around the stage. She has to be helped down the stairway to the stage by two men. It's sad.

Then Summer breaks into her cheesetastic disco anthem "Last Dance" and Syesha gets to sing and dance next to her, like the Ghost of Donna Summer Past -- and those darn "SYTYCD" dancers continue to fling themselves all over the stage.

The six Idolette guys then sing with Bryan Adams -- Canada's answer to Bruce Springsteen, you know. Canada, you'll recall, is one of those countries that passed a law requiring every citizen to cast exactly one vote in this year's "American Idol." And, what a coincidence, Adams has got a new album out, "11."

Here's the Jonas Brothers -- they've got a tour coming up in July and it will be turned into a 3-D movie!

We take a break from your commercials for the following programming: It's this season's worst-auditioners tape time. Which can only mean Seacrest is about to bring out:

Renaldo Lapuz!

In his Liberace-attending- a-costume-party-as-messenger-god-Hermes outfit!

With the USC Marching Band!

And the USC Song Girls! (pompom chicks to you and me)

And judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul once again climb onstage to hog/share the spotlight with Renaldo. Is this the best "American Idol" finale ever or what?

What's this? Thatched Roof gets ZZ Top and all Baby Elmo gets is to sing with One Republic?

Seacrest never bothers explaining why we're about to watch previously unseen footage of Gladys Knight auditioning the Pips in 1972. Oh, because it's actually Ben Stiller, Jack Black and "Iron Man" Robert Downey Jr. pretending to be Pips. Did you know they're starring in that "Tropic Thunder" flick coming out in August?

Oh, look! It's Season 4 "Idol" winner Carrie Underwood, who, The Washington Post Team TV Designated "Idol" Back-Up Watcher Tamara Jones points out, is dressed as a Wimbledon streetwalker. Underwood is singing her newest tune about hopping into the sack with a random guy and waking up married to him so she doesn't even know her new "Last Name." Hate when that happens.

The 12 Idolettes sing together one last time -- before singing together on tour for 2.5 months.

Biker Nurse has aged a decade and looks mondo mad to be there. Even so, they should swap out Ramiele Malubay or Nanny Brooke and put her in the Tour of the Top 10 because at least she's different. It's good to see Alleged Lapdancer again, too.

It's 9:47 and still no Dead Singers as rumored here and there, no "MJ" -- as in Michael Jackson -- as teased by "Idol" judge Paula Abdul on celebrity suck-up show "Extra," no "biggest star in the world" as promised by exec producer Nigel Lythgoe on Seacrest's radio show.

Then George Michael appears and all is forgiven. He's got a tour starting in June and recently released his CD, "Twenty Five." He sings "Praying for Time," which is on his new CD and which, gotta say, is much better performed by him than by Carrie Underwood on this season's "Idol Gives Back." All three "Idol" judges, Randy Jackson, Paula and Simon Cowell, give him a standing ovation.

Randaula announces it's been one of the strongest "Idol" years ever and vows this is the start of the Two Davids' "destinies of their careers" and that it just goes to show "how truly special we are as people."

Simon then launches into a lengthy apology to Thatched Roof for having said, in keeping with the previous night's whole strained boxing-match theme, that he got knocked out by David Archuleta. We smell a set-up; Simon knows something.

At 9:59 p.m. Seacrest announces Thatched Roof is our new American Idol, pounding Baby Elmo by a whopping 12 million votes.

On cue, Thatched Roof begins to sing his new credibility-crushing "American Idol" Treacle Tune, "Time of My Life":

And I'll taste every moment
And live it out loud
I know this is the time,
This is the time
To be more than a name
Or a face in the crowd
I know this is the time
This is the time of my life
Time of my life