Liveblogging American Idol 2 hour finale — Spoilers!

Ryan says one David got 56% of the 96 million votes, the other, 44%. This is about the separation over at DialIdol. http://dialidol.com/asp/predictions/Predictions.asp
Hometown crowds are loving their Davids.
Top 12 singers on stage singing the Temptations’ “Get Ready”. It’s nice to see them all again. I dunno how I get so attached to them every year. They’re doing some cool dancing. Where’s Amanda Overmayer? Lol… those dance moves are scary. The AI companion show, “So You Think You Can Dance”, starts Thursday. I think it’s a subtle plug. Brooke looks great tonight. David Cook looks hot. Seeing Carly makes me happy.
And off to commercial.
Oh Ford commercial. I’d hate to be running a car company in this economy. Discussing their search for alternative fuels. Isn’t the Ford F-150 monster truck their best seller? I wonder about its mileage? 13 MPG city. WTG Ford.
Back to AI.
David C coming out, leather jacket, gravelly voice, singing “Hero”. It’s a duet with David A. OMG they sound FANTASTIC TOGETHER. David A’s high voice against David C’s gravel I LOVE THIS PAIRING. They were great.
Ryan coming on with a segue to a fake mentor spoof to advertise Michael Meyer’s guru movie. I guess they made the Davids go to this. It looks awful. LOL Michael Meyers as Guru doing Sitar Hero. Okay. I liked that. Okay more useless idiocy. Meyes is doing in character riffing on David C for his stubble and David A for the perils of puberty. I was wondering what had happened to Michael Meyers. I wonder what happened to Dana Carvey?
Okay that segment was stupid and useless. Oh and now they have Meyers in costume here. Because that has what to do with singing or American Idol? Oh wait, it has nothing to do with it. If I were not watching this live, I would be skipping it. As it is, I have muted it.
Okay, save point. Please continue reading after the jump 🙂

Sayesha! My girl! That’s a hot dress. Someone has come out to sing with her (Seal? Sounds like him). I don’t know who everyone is, but he’s hot too, and has a great voice. I’d buy his record. I wonder who it is? Minor keys get me every time. Sayesha is good but this guy totally crushes her. Not as good a pairing as the Davids.
Commercial break. That stupid guru movie again. I’m NOT going to go see it, you can STOP with the commercials. Even that Adam Sandler Jewish secret agent/hairdresser movie looks better. Adam Sandler came from Manchester, NH. He did this game show sketch on Saturday Night Live back in the day with lots of New England-themed questions, like the number of Dunkin’ Donut shops on a short section of road (like 50).
Okay back to AI.
Ryan introduces Jason, says something
Jason Castro with Hallelujah. Good choice. I loved the Jeff Buckley version of this, I think that was the first one I ever heard, and then the Rufus Wainwright one from Shrek, and I finally did hear Leonard Cohen himself singing it. There was a Leonard Cohen special which had interviews with him and segments with people singing his songs, and Rufus did his version along with his sister. Jason does the song well, but it’s total Buckley. Needs more Jason. Crowd goes wild.
Oh look all 12 doing a Ford commercial. Hey there’s Amanda. Oh I see, it’s a pastiche of all the commercials.
Okay Ryan with the Davids again.
Ryan is giving the two Davids new cars, Escape Hybrids. That was nice.
The final six girls are doing a Donna Somers medley. Ya know, this is boring. Oh there goes Amanda. God, I missed her. She has such a Janis voice. Followed by CARLY! OMG SHE CAN SING! Ramielle, boring. Some dance crew came out. Now an older lady. Could she be Donna Somers? Some song called Stamp Your Feet. Boring. I wonder if they could have given the girls something cooler to sing. If any of them had actually sung this in competition, they would have been eliminated. I guess that must be her. Some people just don’t age well. I mean, who am I to talk… but then, I’m not on TV. Somers just handed the mike to Sayesha. Sayesha is a star.
Okay that’s over. I wonder what they will have the boys do… after commercial.
Oops now we’re pimping Diet Coke. Do people really do roller disco outside of movies and commercials? Ad for the Hulk movie. Um, not interested. Iron Man was cool though. Speaking of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, NPR had a great interview with this guy who had written an autobiography of Jack Kirby. Huh, a Nintendogs commercial for the DS. That’s kinda old.
Ad for that show where you make yourself and your family look like idiots. Moment of Truth. What an awful show. I watched it once.
And we’re back.
Carly and Michael Johns doing Joe Cocker’s “The Letter”. Carly mixes it up, so does Michael. I guess I am glad they don’t sing it like Cocker, but with the two of them, it kinda sounds like Meat Loaf. People have complained that Johns only got as far as he did because he looks so good. I disagree. I loved his take on Bohemian Rhapsody. He took a chance with Freddy Mercury and nailed it. I wonder what kind of songs he would sing on an album? Anyway that was decent but I prefer the original. Still love Carly.
Sounds like another fake segment. Oh it’s Jimmy Kimmel. Talk show host? Opens with Sanjaya joke *yawn*. Chris Sligh joke. Reference to Paulagate. Simon’s parents — Rosemary and Satan Cowell. I LOL’d. Simon’s comments set to Pop Goes the Weasel. Okay that was filler.
Okay here are the boys. They get to do rock. Best Days of our Life, Bryan Adams. That stripper guy sucks. Johns rocks. Jason’s voice is weak. Chikezie! Love him. Now for the two finalists. I hope they duet. GAH DAVID C I LOVE HIM. David A is HOT tonight but I still want Cook to win. Now that I am pretty sure Cookie wins, I can appreciate David A more. Yup and now Bryan Adams his own self comes down. Aged about as well as Donna Somers. I wonder how much they have to pay to be pimped on American Idol?
Okay, I am going to admit right now. If David A and David C do an album together, that CD would be on perma repeat play in the car. As long as they don’t sing this new Bryan Adams song on it.
My dad’s name was David. He died just under a year ago. Seeing his name all over the Internet and on American Idol makes me happy, but I miss him a lot. Which is weird. because we weren’t all that close when I was little. He grew closer as time went on. And then I moved to California and only saw him occasionally until he was terminally ill. I moved back, but it was too late. I would have liked to have been more a part of his life for those 23 years. Now it’s too late. You don’t understand how important family is when you’re young.
Commercial for Wall-E. That looks good.
We’re back. Jordin Sparks pimping some ride or something at Disneyworld.
Ryan getting shouts to David Cook from the audience. David C and ZZ Top doing Sharp Dressed Man. Now let’s hear some ROCK. Old ROCK. Has David’s guitar been redone? The AC looks different. Cook’s having fun but he doesn’t sing the song as well as the original or maybe he just needs to change it some. Bring it up to date. Eh. That was filler. Sorry Cookie.
Back to Cookie’s home town, talking with his music teacher.
Graham Nash and Brooke White with “Teach Your Children”. Didn’t Jack Black riff on this in “School of Rock”? This is just exactly Brooke’s kind of song and she sounds fantastic. Put me down for her album too. I wish my daughter lived closer.
Commercial for iPod or something. MUTE.
David Cook redoing the Old Time Rock and Roll thing with Tom Cruise in Risky Business but with Guitar Hero.
Free ATM! ATM is suffering in a nameless foreign prison without being charged with any crime! Free ATM!
Wow, how can car companies advertise SUVs and trucks? They should be ashamed to sell them.
Ryan says they need no introduction so he doesn’t introduce them and they are? Well, they are the Jonas Brothers, but that’s only because I saw their picture somewhere. Another Disney(tm) band. Song is boring and childish. MUTE.
We’re halfway through.
One of the failures from the auditions is here. Isn’t this the guy that auditioned with Jason? They have a marching band… I’m not getting this. He isn’t singing in tune. Why are they having him on?
Back to commercials. 9:10PM.
Steve Carvell is Max Smart. I didn’t listen to the commercial. I loved that show when I was a kid. Saw the Get Smart movie “The Naked Bomb” as an adult and it stunk, wasn’t funny at all. Ford shows some guy driving by himself in a huge SUV. Let’s see that one where you were looking for alternative fuels again.
Ellen Degeneres and? Girlfriend? Now some bald guy and now some security guard and now someone in a bad Roman Centurion costume and… AI should come back on.
EW.com is liveblogging at http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/05/idol-finale-liv.html btw.
And we’re back.
“Apologize” by One Republic. Piano. I like piano. I was just thinking this would be a good David A song, and out he comes. Guess I wasn’t the only one to think that. Sign: “I’ll be your Veronica, Archie!”. Song isn’t that good. I hate runny songs with no melodic hooks. This is why I won’t buy a David A album.
Back to Salt Lake City. His grandfather is Mexican! That’s cool.
Oh here’s Jordin Sparks. I wonder if she learned a song I liked in the last year. Um, not sounding like it. I wanted Melinda Doolittle to win. Jordin definitely has a lot more stage presence now. So the American Idol winner has to sing the songs 19 Entertainment makes them sing? I suppose they might be forcing her to sing this song. I have never liked this sort of screechy diva song. They should have David A sing this with her.
Ya know, I would like to see David A actually try to sing the phonebook tonight.
Commercial! That iPody commercial actually turns out to be a pimpalicous Coldplay ad for iTunes. Hey, here’s that Adam Sandler movie. Still not going to see it. My son was watching that remote control one a while back and it was awful.
People sliding in snow. Noooooo snow melted go away don’t remind me. Mohegan Sun commercial with everyone spontaneously dancing. I wonder how happy they are when they lose all their money. People just voluntarily hand this place all their money. There was something on Wired today (I think) about how a better understanding of statistics would explain to people why casinos are a bad idea, and also why false positives make the paranoid big-brother society we have going ineffective and a bad idea.
BAck to AI.
Speaking of Jack Black he’s here with Ben Stiller and someone I don’t recognize immediately being the Pips to old footage of Gladys Knight. More filler. *yawn*. Okay it’s 9:30. Let’s start with the results. Robert Downey Jr was the third.
Carrie Underwood. She won AI before I started watching and as such I don’t know anything about her since, well, let’s face it. I like rock. I don’t like pop, unless it is also rock. Did she lose the pants to that suit? Is this supposed to be country? I think this is country. You used to be able to tell the difference between pop and country. The only thing that clued me in was the banjo and the steel guitar. Anyway aside from the fact that she walked out in front of 7,000 people without her pants — *yawn* boring.
More commercial. Ford with that “hey we’re green” commercial. Hellboy II commercial. That looks kinda cool. first movie was okay, Was worth seeing once.
Back again.
Top 12 again. Dunno the song. I like how their black dresses reflect their stage personalities. Boys now. Opening with Michael Johns, they keep doing that. He should have stayed longer. I still like Chikezie. Never got that into Jason. Now with the Davids for group singing. Dosi doe, swing your partner. Cookie! Boring song. Freedom! Free ATM! Okay David C > David A in this song. Sorry, Archie. EW bloggers say Amanda looks mad. I dunno. She never was going to win but I would have liked to have seen her make it to the top 10 and get on the tour. I don’t understand why they have the top 12, but only the top 10 get to go on tour.
I guess that was a George Michael song because guess who shows up. *yawn*. Why do I watch AI when I don’t like the songs? I dunno. I like the stories. I like the people. I like caring about complete strangers for awhile. So while he sings gonna go watch along with the EW bloggers.
Paula is crying. Am I just too old for him? Or too young to appreciate him? Well, nobody understands why I love Blue Oyster Cult either. Fewer and fewer people have ever even heard of them. That makes me sad.
George Michael is still singing. It’s 9:47. Another commercial and then results? OMG George Michael is going on tour? Why did I ever think a singer would come on AI without something to sell? Oh, Jack Black panda movie. Okay, what was Ben Stiller selling? Ashton Kutchner is taking pictures. I thought only terrorists took pictures.
Local news after Idol will be about Idol and Sex in the City the movie. The advertising, it extends right into the news! And this, folks, is why I listen to NPR. At least when they say they are telling you the news, it actually is.
Back! Results!
Final thoughts!
Randy: great season 7, so happy it’s the 2 of you, strongest year ever, yeah right.
Paula: proud and honored to be sitting here. You look lovely! Well, no she didn’t say that.
Simon: Grats to both. Says it wasn’t as clear cut as he called it live. He’s kissing up to David C. He knows David C won. After calling it for David A last night, today he’s all I don’t care who wins.
Here they are: Winner by 12 million votes is DAVID COOK!!!!
WOOT!!!!!!!!!
Okay even though I knew he would win from DialIdol I am SO HAPPY!
If he brings his brother up on stage I will cry too.
There’s his mom! She was such a big fan. There’s his brother :))))
Time of My Life is winning song, let’s hear some rock. Amanda took Archie’s hand and I saw her smile so she can. I’m really happy right now but what will I do with my Tue/Wed now without AI? Last year I was so sick but this is true, I would look forward to AI all week. Once I started working again it wasn’t like that so much but you know, you always have to have something to look forward to and sometimes it’s a TV show. I couldn’t go on if I had nothing to look forward to.
If you’ve been reading this with me, thanks 🙂 Likely I’ve been writing to myself, but I’ll read this back next year.
I love you all.

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