Season 7 Final 2 – Recap

Wow, they were both good in the first round.

i cant wait until the nights over and we can vote, your going down ARCHIE :guns_tb:

Welcome back, MJ! Your site must be getting hammered: your domain was completely saturated with DNS lookups when the show started at 8pm eastern – we were worried!

OK – Round One:

The both look frikkin nervous as heck. The rumors of the Cadaverous One (Clive Davis) being involved were true! Oh boy! So David Cook has to go into Bono Emulation mode – and did well!
But the finale is a show about anthems, and that’s in Archie’s wheelhouse. The Elton John retread – did well! The judges are pimping the Chosen One it looks like, folks.

Round Two: Different song choices from the rumors! Cooks song sucked. Archie’s sounds like an Olympic anthem. Geeeze. A tie. They both sucked. Archie a bit less, I guess.

So Archuleta is kicking butt. In my opinion.

They’re throwing Cookie under the bus. That shocks me! But, Archuleta came out swinging, all 100 pounds of him. Cook’s voice sounds tired and strained.

Wow, Archie is on fire tonight! Cookie is too!

What a night!! I love these two :D

But Archie is definitely winning the night right now. Last round next… good luck to both!

YEEESH!!! Could they be pimping Archie more?!?! Damn.

What a great night for Archie.

Goodness! Can they make it more obvious? Good Lord…and with all this talk of DC being TCO…I don’t get it.

Cook is sounding like Daughtry on all of his songs tonight. What gives?

Since I don’t care who wins, I’m not bothered but …

Collective Soul?
Thanks for playing. Buh-bye….

Maybe Cook doesn’t want the win. Maybe he got a look at the winner’s contract. But, I’m sure his fan base will pull him through.

Cook just made ME cry…that was so sweet.

Loved The World I Know and loved David Cook. He did a fabulous job with it. I am truly shocked at Simon throwing Cookie under the bus. And Cookie just gave a great answer to Simon’s critique. Is this supposed to be reverse psychology or something – pimp David A. and rile everyone up to give Cookie the win?

There was nothing that DC could have done with The World I Know to make it a winning choice. It’s way too obscure to carry him through.

Skylight, should I just go back to my Jason thread and rewatch him?? What did the judges say about the two of them??

I’m not liking Imagine at all. Too many runs and riffs.

I am not drinking the kool-aid. Archuleta was pitchy in the 2nd song and the 3 stooges loved it. Well, AI has told the sheep they want DA to be their guy. Will the voters do as they are told? I hope not. Powere voting for Cook in this household.

Archie luv-luv-luvs them runs… Why sing one note when you can sing twelve?

If DC isn’t doing well it’s because he chooses to not win. Every other week with the exception of 1 or 2 he has killed. I think he doesn’t want to be tied to AI.

I seriously do not think they want Archie to win, he has 0 personality. Plus, Simon has been predicting on every show he has been on that Cookie will win.

I guess we will find out!!

I’m relistening, and, Archie is pitchy. They’re both tired and it shows.

Rebecamia – I cried, too.

DA was awesome tonight, but DC is the man! He’s an all around great musician. He has a style and a great stage presence. DA will grow in time, but DC is ready now! I’m voting for Cook!

whoa archie is amazing!! standing ovation from me! i really thought archie is going to go down down down since he told the pop tarts on monday that his voice is giving out (plus the pimping of DC by Simon on Jay & Ellen). I love cookie but heh? tonight he was not as good when he did hello and bilie jean. but i still LOVE cookie.

how long can we vote?

Round Three:

Cookie chooses a song by the band produced by Taylor Hicks’ (and Matchbox 20′s) producer, Matt Serletic. Cookie MIGHT be using him for the 1st album, methinks?

Archie wins. Slam Dunk.

Did Cookie back away? Nah. This show is about balladic format anthem songs. It was Archie’s to lose. And, in my opinion, he didn’t. Give the kid credit: he sung his buttocks off with one paralysed vocal chord all season long, and my have to go the laser route in a week or two to correct the problems he’s had. Cookie gets to start his 1st album. Let the kid go do the talk show circuit.

Good finale. Not as good as season 5, but good enough.

OMG, Archie you were unbelievable tonight. Always a fan but he really had one of the best nights I’ve ever seen anyone have on Idol.

I think I’m gonna vote for Archuleta. I’d like him to have the moment whereas I don’t really think Cook cares as lng as he gets a record deal, which he will no doubt.

DC’s Coronation song was way better and has a more commercial appeal

Archie was horrible tonight, pitchy all over the place, off key. He was happy about his being TCO all along.

Cook came in eyes dull, something not right (I did not see Adam there and him bursting into tears was ODD).

Then the judges ran the semi over Cook.

It’s ok Cook, you will pull a Daughtry, don’t worry.

The judges are so obviously pressing for Archie to win. How transparent. David Cook is clearly the better singer.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

What a night!

Archie was incredible!

Yeah, I will feel bad for Archuletta if he doesn’t win it all, so much pressure has been put on this kid to do well in this competition (by his Father no less). If he doesn’t win he may be devestated. On the other hand Cookie will be fine with not winning.

Even better, if Archie wins how long before he gets a new management team and fires his Dad?

I thought DC was brilliant. What the heck?

That sucked worse than anything I’ve heard all season….pablum pop judges will NEVER allow a REAL artist to go through.

Good Lord make this show end forever…..

Ok i do like Daivd Cook he did a good job duriing the competiton. Thier was some comaprison to Chris d early on but he is different..
David Cook why was he trying to remind me of Daughtry tonight or channel him it was not good at all.The first two songs he was trying too hard to rock them out..the third was a little better.

I dislike to say this David A came out swinging and seemed he wanted it tonight and IMO won the night.

Gosh that was boring!

I just witnessed the best night in Idol history…

For the sake of the shows Rep, please ppl archie needs to win- it will only hurt Cookie if he wins- then everybody calls BS

DAFTMFW!!!!!!

Watched tonight with no clear favorite, was rooting for Chileze early in the season and on the fence since.
Thought David A was completely on tonight, his vocals on for all three songs, his voice is beautiful, a little pitchy in parts tonight, but so easy to listen to
Loved David C’s first song, the second well sung ( but what a awful song), and the Collective soul song was a wrong move to me, he would have had the audience in his hand with Billie Jean,EVERYONE and their mother knows the song
He did sound a lot like daughtry tonight, what’s up with that?

Hey! I voted for DC a few times (I LOVED his last song and thought it was beautiful – I’D buy that record!).

ANYWAY, I thought when it came down to two we were supposed to get their individual voices on the phone, thanking us for our vote. What gives?!

Cook’s last song was the best of the night hands down, I don’t care what Simon says. He may not win but his ability to interperet songs will serve him well on his album.

Archie was damn good tonight though, he definitely performed better than he has in weeks past. It will be a close vote.

My impressions:

Round #1 – Clive David Picks

David Cook sings “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2
Grade: A

David Archuleta sings “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me” by Elton John
Grade: A-

Round #2 – Songwriter Contest

David Cook sings “Dream Big”
Grade: B (plus)

David Archuleta sings “In This Moment”
Grade: A-

Round #3 – Personal Choice

David Cook sings “The World I Know” by Collective Soul
Grade: A (plus)

David Archuela reprises “Imagine” by John Lennon
Grade: A (plus)

Best of the night: Mathematical tie (according to my grading)
Winner of Season 7: David Archuleta (slight edge)

I feel all icky from the undeserved tounge baths. Archie was good, but not that good.

I hope this works as reverse psychology on all the Cook fans, because he was much better than the judges thought.

David Cook- win or loose- I’ll be buying whatever you put out!

David Cook just got ran over by a huge bus.

That was sickening. David Cook is going to sell ten times more albums than Archuleta, and I’m going to laugh, laugh, laugh. Hope you like your winner AI. You deserve the Archbot.

And for the record, Cook was probably my fourth favorite this season (Brooke was my fave), but it was so clear what was going on tonight, and it made me mad.

Everyone is already calling BS Duke. There is getting ready to be a HUGE backlash.

I’m just glad I’m not voting for 4 hours, and, can enjoy reading other’s comments.

This was exactly the opposite of what I thought would happen tonight. I thought Archie would choke, but he used his emotions and was damn incredible. He kicked ass, it was incredible, and his crappy coronation song was not bad. LOL! What a great night. Then to top it off, my favorite idol closed the show. I cried. Shit, I love this cheesy ass show. Going to vote some more. DAFTMFW!

If the 3 stooges said its snowing in the middle of summer, how many would put on their snow shoes? This was a shill job started 3 months ago that DA was their guy. When DA was pitchy in song 2 and all 3 judges loved it, it makes me more determined to power vote for DC.

I’m so glad I don’t have a dog in the fight ( my fav Jason is movin’ on) but I would have to give the night to DA – all songs. DC screamed all of the songs. I have to wonder if it was planned. Also DC crying- what about that? Thank God Taylor kept his composure on tv. Sorry, the whole finale reaked(?) of preplanning. Give me back Season 5!

But would you buy any of that treacle that D’Arch sang? Clay done put out that CD …and w/ more personality.

TOTALLY Rigged.

The pimping of the young one started the moment the show opened, disgusting. Archie is so nervous I thought he was going to throw up! heh

Cook looked confident and I think the tears at the end were the culmination of the experience and the atmosphere- 7000 there live! I hate that we couldn’t hear him very well in the last song- but he did an awesome job tonight and I will buy anything he puts out- and I already have!

DC Rules, if for some reason you are 2nd- you will outsell the idol.

Go Cookie!

What the hell?? Apparently the judges & I were watching a different show.

Please, PLEASE reward artistic creativity, imagination & versatility over ballad pageantry.

The judges must be watching different performances from me. As Archie sang, we were picking out problems but not a peep out of the judges. If they want Archie as the winner, maybe they should be stuck with him. This is ridiculous…

Very disappointing night on both sides. Archie because of the performances and Cook because of the song choices.

Hey, why aren’t we getting a thank you message from David himself when we vote (like we always do every season)?

ANYWAY, I thought when it came down to two we were supposed to get their individual voices on the phone, thanking us for our vote. What gives?!

All I can say is this. Before the show ended, that five minute window, we all got alot of votes in. The second it turned on the hour, ALL THREE lines busied out.

I know your watching AI, what just went down is going to come back to haunt you in a big way.

On the good side, all the fans of Jason, and other contestants just came back with a vengeance for Cook. Not that it will help since no one can get through.

I must say, WAY TO GO AI.

I’m not a big fan of either of the Top 2 but Archie kicked butt tonight. I can’t believe that he’s only 17. (LOL)

Glad that I don’t have to worry about voting for 4 hours.

Oh my. I’ll say upfront David Cook has been my one true love this season. OK for all 7 seasons actually. I’m voting for him as long as I can. I think Archie was a bit strained & out of tune on DLTSGDOM & once again, the song was too old for him. I didn’t get it, coming from him. And I kept comparing to Clay. I don’t prefer the singing 12 notes when you could just sing 1 perfectly. I know The World I Know. It recvd heavy airplay, I don’t think it’s obscure. I thought it was perfect for David’s personal choice. He is perfect. I would rather listen to his albums over & over than listen to 1 of Archie’s of sappy, run-filled ballads once. David Cook is real life, connects to MY real life. Archie is an over trained singing 17-year old right now. David is NOT Daughtry. I liked Chris but I didn’t even bother voting or buying his album. He didn’t reach me like David does. I don’t know for sure but I THINK he wanted to WIN. Well gotta go, voting still!

I think this was the best finale I can remember, in terms of entertainment and quality of the performances.

Full disclosure: I am a Cooktard. I’ll buy his music, and I think lots (LOTS) of other people will too.

Even so, I think Archie was incredible tonight. Seriously. I don’t like his style of singing (those runs drive me insane in the membrane). I still have to give credit where I think it is due… and the kid held his own tonight. Heck, he was great. This is not to say that I think DC was bad. To the contrary, I thought he was also pretty great. The emotions seemed to overwhelm him — I sure hope his brother is OK….

Nonetheless, based on what I saw and heard, I think Archie was more Idol-istic tonight… I can really see the confetti showering down for him. I’m not giving up my Cooktard Card! He rocks. I wouldn’t call it a knock out (sorry Simon), but I think Archie was better… tonight.

Just my opinion. And think this was an awesome, awesome show.

Cook will definitely sell more records, I think. But that’s not really the point from my perspective (maybe because I wasn’t invested until tonight?) – it might be from the producers’ perspective but I’m not concerned about that.

It would be really nice to see this kid who has been a fan for so long win. I really don’t want to see his face when he loses. I feel like that’s a stupid reason to vote, but I really am just basing it on the few weeks I watched and tonight. The little one came out fighting against Simon pronouncing him as the “other guy” on Leno – which was very rude.

Glad that I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have to worry about voting for 4 hours.

You’re just like me- not voting, missing Jason, but it kinda feels good to enjoy but not be so hung up on the winner that you have to stay up the whole night voting or worrying who was gonna win.

David Archuleta is a better singer, tonight. He came out TRYING to win and had at least 2 killer performances tonight.
But, he sang ALL slow songs and if these performances were put onto a CD, they wouldn’t sell 1000 records. He showed us last week during “with you” (terrible) that he cannot do pop or anything that is popular today. He would release an album with soul songs that would SUCK because he can only sing sappy, slow, old fashioned songs.

David Cook had three mediocre performances (although I loved the last one, it was very touching). He didn’t seem really INTO it like Archuleta was. I did admire that he didn’t reprise a song. He took a risk and did a new one which shows guts. His CD, whether he wins or not, will do MUCH BETTER than Archuleta’s. Unlike David A, Cook has had a least 5 performances where I have said “Wow, if he released that on a CD, it would do GREAT!”

My point is that David Cook, while not the better singer, has a great career ahead of him and has at least an ounce of personality (the other David has no personality at all).

My vote is for David Cook. He deserves it.

I think at this point talking of pimping is a little bit much…we all know exactly who these two are and most casual voters do as well. They weren’t mean to DC by any stretch of the imagination.

DA deserves to win this, after tonight. “Just an opinion.”

Also DC crying- what about that?

I dunno…how about having the biggest moment of his career with his dying brother in the audience? Or maybe it had something to do with his good friend Luke Menard being diagnosed with Lymphoma today? He’s got a lot of reason to cry and not a lot of reason to sing. I thought he was brilliant.

Oh wait I have to say this too. IMO David Cook is the better singer. I think anytime during this whole thing, he could’ve sung the songs Archie sung & it would’ve been an improvement. I don’t think the same can be said for vice versa. And I already know that Cook writes his own material, which is a BIG plus for me in choosing who I want to win this contest & recording contract.

Dial Idol is down due to the heavy traffic. Must be a whole lot of voting going on!

Congrats to both Davids for a great show!! I could’ve done without the boxing analogies and ALW, but oh well.

Archie was truly in fine voice tonight, and I teared up a time or two. Outstanding job on all three songs. Cook is a sweet guy and the Collective Soul song was much better than I expected it to be. But with that determined spirit and soaring voice, Archie emerged as the victor tonight.

I dunnoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦how about having the biggest moment of his career with his dying brother in the audience?

Was his brother in the audience? I missed that I guess.

:::sigh:::
I was disappointed tonight u guys… After the first “round” which went to Archie, I said to myself, there are still TWO more songs to go!
Then after the second song (which I liked Cookie’s better, but the judges kept pimping Archie) so I said, still ONE more song to go!
Then…. :::bigger sigh::: I dunno… then Cookie cried, well hell, then I cried… and then Simon finally let that last bus tire tread all over him and my poor heart sank down to my feet.
Did Archie want it more?
Did Cookie not do his best on purpose?
I gotta say I am a little baffled to be honest, b/c I thought the night would have gone ALOT differently than it did.
And I think Simon really WANTED Cookie to do good tonight (not that he did badly) but he didnt impress him like I think Simon thought he would.
I am still voting the full four hours for Cookie (almost 30 minutes in and havent gotten thru yet) but I just wish he had done better, b/c now I would almost feel a tinge of guilt if Archie lost just b/c he seemed to really be on point tonight and truly give it his all.
On another note tho, I seriously cant wait til the finale tomorrow just to see “the gang” back together.
And on a p.s. this was, imo, no where near as good as the s2 finale. =(

Thanks skylight. I was wondering about that–DI keeps giving me Jordin/Blake results.

ROTFDL @ David A singing, “Give me a chance and I’ll show you what’s real” then it shows a big ol set of hands reaching for him!

*still watching.. I’m behind!*

I have never seen such a display of bus-throwing-under. All 6 songs were as good as they could be. Would Cookie have been a knockout if he had gone last? I am just sick.

By far the best finale I’ve seen since Bo/Carrie and maybe better than that. It might be because for the first time I actually had a favorite make it but I thought Cook was very good but had a bit of an off night. Archie had the best night he’s had all season. He really rose to the night.

Cook will get his album and probably do a Daughtry on Archies sales but Archie truly deserves to win the title.

skylight1219
May 20th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Dial Idol is down due to the heavy traffic. Must be a whole lot of voting going on!

DC- 61.98
DA- 59.92

Dialidol.com shows the 2 Davids very close.
David Cook has a slight early lead over DA, by Barely 2 Points.
Still patiently waiting to see the show, here in AZ.
Did I hear correctly that phone voting is open for 4 hours?
It’s going to be a long night.
Go Cookie! Can’t wait to see you perform tonight.

Archie came out swinging. That said, I loved Cook tonight too. It was like Archie was an A to Cook’s A-. I wouldn’t be mad if Archie won, but if Cookie won, I would be thrilled.

But if anything, this should put to rest a lot of TCO talk. Wasn’t everyone convinced yesterday that Cook was pre-chosen? I guess not anymore. LOL. Maybe the judges just say what they think, after all?

WOW.
Great show tonight. Really good. Archuleta was outstanding tonight. That kid gave it his all and left it on the floor of the Nokia. His voice is gorgeous. Cook was really good too. He will be an incredible recording artist and has hitmaker all over him. The emotions these two must be feeling are immense and overwhelming! Kudos to both Davids on a great show, but IMO, Archuleta took the night. Way to go, kiddo.

Clarify——–I luv my head…

Daivd A for me did a little better tonight….

David Cook overall should win the whole thing for his game plan and singing..” Not good at all “comment first blog was not the songs but seemingly tryng to channel Daughtry sorry for the confusion..

Thanks for the dial idol percentages. It’s very, very close at this point.

i didnt start voting until 9… has anyone gotten thru either line yet?

I’m a westie and won’t see the performances until MJ kindly posts them, but I want to buck up the Cookie fans. I can only guess that Simon is using reverse psychology to gin up the votes for Cookie. The only contestants for whom he showed genuine enthusiasm this season are Cookie and Jason. Honestly, he almost always seems bored with ArchuD2.

A well-matched finale is good for AI, but our MJ is right — as always — that AI needs a superstar winner to bolster the franchise. Tay Tay’s assessment of Archie as the next Wayne Newton seems about right to me. Having DC win AI probably does more for the show’s reputation than for Cookie’s career. Regardless of the final results tomorrow night, Cookie’s first post-AI album should outsell Archie’s.

This may be the closest matchup since season 2, which Ruben won technically but Clay emerged as the de facto winner.

That said, keep voting, WordNerds!

I don’t understand what’s the pimping with the boy diva all about, i would guess it’s a strategy for ratings, and what are all the boy diva fans doing posting about the boy diva winning, gosh sappy ballads song fest, I’m puking.

Wow, AI line percentages are pretty damn close, too… lol

DC#1 – 64%
DC#3 – 63%
DA#1 – 62%
DC#2 – 62%
DA#3 – 61%
DA#2 – 59%

DC’s best friends from Top 24, he has said, were Jason Yeager, Michael Johns, and Luke Menard. Reportedly, Luke’s had a cancer diagnosis. Ten bucks says that’s what was with the subdued performances tonight. Okay…gotta vote. Gonna be a close one, y’all!

This is a singing contest and Archuletta outsang his opponent tonight.
Congrats, Archie! Great win.

i didnt start voting until 9à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ has anyone gotten thru either line yet?

I’ve been voting since 9 and have only gotten through twice, both times on IDOLS-05.

Dial Idol is giving me Jordin/Blake results too. LOL. Talk about retro.

To Terrie– I honestly dont think Simon was doing any reverse psychology 2nite.. I think he was being dead honest when he said Archie’s overall nite was a “knockout.” I feel sick…

I liked Cookie’s last song, but I just thought that of all nights to be a bit off, nasally etc. it was strange for me. I thought if anything he threw himself under the bus with more or less meh performances. I expected the U2 song to be amazing and it was just okay. His coronation song was even worse than Archie’s and he picked it.

On the other hand Archie came out swinging and he was effective. His voice is beautiful and he was more in the zone and energetic tonight, he used his nerves to his benefit. I think Cookie peaked too early and Archie had his best night when he needed it.

Tay Tayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s assessment of Archie as the next Wayne Newton seems about right to me.

Wayne Newton has been the biggest draw in Vegas since Elvis died.
Being compared to him is not a bad thing.

Cook gave 3 strong performances; but not enough to win the title, IMO.

Do people actually vote on the basis of one night? How about the rest of the season?

That said, I have had about a dozen busy signals all season, up til tonight. Tonight, about 3 votes have gotten through in the first half hour. Very busy phone lines tonight. I’m surprised that there are only 3 lines. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t be–that’ll make for a closer vote.

On the good side, all the fans of Jason, and other contestants just came back with a vengeance for Cook. Not that it will help since no one can get through.

Count this Michael fan in. I felt bad for David C tonight because he sang really well yet Simon and Randy crowned David A. Maybe the sound is different on tv because I didn’t think David A was as good as they did. The thing that annoyed me the most was when Simon told DC that he should have sang Billie Jean or Hello because I get the feeling if he had, there would have been a criticism that it wasn’t as good the 2nd time around. :mad_tb:

Yep, voting text and landline. Getting through with the phone-ins on all 3 lines, ONCE IN AWHILE! Oh and that would be on 5701, 5703, and 5705, please. :-)

Could Randy POSSIBLY pimp Archie more?

I think it was actually a pretty lackluster finale, and I wasn’t very riveted away from the tests I was grading. It just felt like it was missing SOMETHING.

The craptastic coronation song? BAD all around, although Archie did better on his, obviously. That’s his kind of song.

Which is why Archie will win.

HATED the dumb boxing references.

Felt slightly bad for Cookie. Thought he was slightly thrown under the bus, specifically Randy. Wait! Who did Randy want to win?

Even though I think Archie has it in the bag, I’m power voting DC tonight!

I have never seen a more manipulative finale in all the time i’ve watched this show. I’m stupified.

David Cook’s song choices are very good, it shows that he can mix it up, and he sang ISHFWILF and give it the David Cook Energy. It Rocks!

The World I Know Is Just Awesome, it’s a good way to end the season.

Dream Big is miles miles better than In This Moment.

The boy diva did good, but he was pimped because he might cry and throw a tantrum on Nokia theatre. *LoL*

I am a little bit blah over the show tonight. Archie had a good night, cute sweet kid. I liked Cookie’s coronation song more, and I wanted so much for him to have the best performances of his life.

I guess I’m just still pissed off because we had to see the relics. It must have been a scary week for The David’s to have to endure talking with those two old geezers at length, when they could have been practicing. I appreciate what Clive and ALW have brought to the world… but enough already.

Ruben sounded good.

No I admit, I don’t vote on the basis of just one night’s performance(s). After a certain point, I’m voting for the person. However many performance it takes to win me totally over. The only contestant to do that on AI for me is David Cook. Oh, I did vote for Clay a few times! But I haven’t cared about anyone else really or bought any MUSIC, not even Daughtry’s. And I liked him a lot. SOOOO I’m voting for my fave to win…DAVID COOK. DCFTW!

Just keep on voting people, David Cook deserves it more than the boy diva, regardless of the pimping that happened tonite!

I think Cookie won round 2 and 3. i have no idea what the judges think they saw. It was so obviously scripted. Hope they realize that people aren’t as dumb as they think. If the show was losing ratings before, they should be ready for some real negativity in the press because of their manipulation tonight.
Even my son who doesn’t watch the show commented on the blatant manipulation and said the older guy was way better.

I mean 8 out of 12 critics/AI experts think David Cook should win this thing. The remaining 4 who think Archuleta should win–the 2 actually like David Cook and it’s just that they think he might be more successful if he does not win.

THE AVERAGE PERFORMANCE of David Cook tonight and bad criticisms could actually increase his votes. You know, just to make sure he wins. If he was incredible like his previous weeks– it would have satisfy people too much. I, for one, would be too confident for him so I wouldnt dare vote. But since his performances kinda suck (compared to his supergreat performances)–Im kinda worried.

I am disappointed with the coronation song. I mean, I heard Overdrive (or is it OVERCOME)– I wished he chose that song instead because it would suit his voice much better. Plus, it is an alternative song.

Umm, I think Simon and I watched a different show tonight; for me it was not a “knock out.” I’m in the “too close to call” camp. Both Davids were excellent tonight, neither was flawless and they were totally different. I think it will come down to a combination of fanbases, the musical preference of the casual voter and how much Simon influences the voters with his comments. I expect Archie to win, he was stellar tonight, and I won’t be upset if he does, but for me David Cook was/is the best. It’s his music I prefer, his performances I’ve enjoyed the most and him I’m likely to go see in concert. So I’m throwing my votes his way. And whoever is crowned as the winner tomorrow night, I fully anticipate that DC will be fastest out the gate in the post-Idol real world.

(As an aside, (and apologies if I saw it wrong) I thought it was interesting that at the beginning when they described the big stage as reserved for stars they only showed Kelly, Carrie and Chris D – does that mean Idol only thinks out of 6 seasons it has created 3 stars, one of whom didn’t even make it to the final 2? I think that’s about all we need to know – tomorrow’s results are merely a formality.)

Oh, they’ll both be fine career wise. It’s not THAT serious. I think Archie really went for it. Cookie played the game better overall this season, but Archie outplayed him tonight. I’m torn about who “deserves” it, but right now I’d give it to Archie.

You know, it’s funny.

Folks who root for either Archie or Cookie aren’t gonna switch their votes based on the performances tonite. It will come down to who can motivate their base to vote all 4 hours, and to sway the voters for other Idols (like Jason’s) to vote for them.

I apologize for continually referring to Season 5 for comparison but, as I have mentioned before, I believe Season 5 was the Zenith of this show so far.

On Season 5 – Kat McPhee’s fans sent hundreds of roses backstage for her. Very nice.
Taylor’s folks bought AT&T Go-Phones. THOUSANDS of them. And folks at the Birmingham Civic Center watched the show, were handed phones, and they all voted for hours.

Taylor won, in a landslide. Did he sway Kat’s voter base? Heck no. I remember that year: Elliott’s base were the closest to Taylor’s in enthusiasm (and deservedly so: Elliott was, and is, a great guy.)
His voters carried the day, in my opinion.

Do you think the voters for Syesha or any of the others will cross over for Archie? Or for Cookie?
That’s gonna be the difference here. I think they’ll vote for Cook. So even though Archie was better tonite, I think Cookie may win due to crossover voting.

Hrmm. Dial Idol is calling:
DC: 58.98
DA: 58.95

Yeah. Really close race here. David Archuleta was amazing tonight. Not going to comment on Cook because I’m really not a fan of his voice… David Archuleta for the win.

Glad I have a night off .I thought tonight was kind of all kinds of awfullness.
Have to give it to Archie though his coronation song was way better than Cookies .

Maybe the sound is different on tv because I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think David A was as good as they did.

We might also have judges judging the rehearsal again. In Cook’s recap at the end, I thought he sounded off, not as fabulous as he did live. Maybe he saved himself for the big event, but the judges weren’t paying attention to the live version we heard. Or, they’re just towing TCO line. Or, it’s reverse psychology. Hm. I’m going with TCO pimpage.

Very disappointing. Archie may be a good singer, but he bores me to tears and bleeds the melody out of a song with his runs.

I’ll be heartsick if Cook doesn’t win under the confetti tomorrow.

OK guys, now think! It is a clever mind game! Simon has let it be known that he prefers David Cook. Producers know Archibot is a one trick pony! They don’t want to end up with Archibot and his control freak dad!

People vote the most when they think their contestant is in trouble. They vote more if the judges give bad reviews.

Simon gave Archibot the props tonight because he knows that all of the COOK fans are going to work extra hard to save him! He knew is we got complacent and felt David had it wrapped up, we wouldn’t work the phones too hard.

Think about it! Evil genuis, but I like it. :devil_tb:

I was thinking reverse psychology too for Simon because he has said all week that he wants David Cook to win. I thought David Cook was brilliant tonight in his musicianship and his stylings of the songs. He made the most of a sucky song #2. It was a lightweight song, he did his best with it. I got through on line #5 but not on the other two and I hope that’s a good sign.

Almost an hour later and I think I’ve only gotten through three times.

If the competition was based on one show, then David Archuleta would definitely win tonight. David Cook had three good performances (though I do wish he’d chosen something with more oomph than the Collective Soul song) but I think David Archuleta came out strong and better than he has all season (and I’m not even a fan). That being said, I’m not voting based on one show because everyone has off nights. I do think Simon saying it was a knockout was a bit over-the-top and uncalled for. A knockout would be if Cook didn’t represent himself in a good light at all and totally sucked, which he didn’t. He just wasn’t as fired up as Archie was.

Is anyone else getting the dialidol.com site down? I can’t get on that either. The lines are all busy. Looks like it’ll be a long night.

I dont understand why people say that AI is pimping David Cook to win this thing. Really? I dont see that tonight. If they really are pimping Cook, they would have sung his praises even if his performances were just OK..

Cook had to work hard for everything to get the praises he received in the past. So give him the credit he is due for.

Maybe more will vote for him, because of the Carly/Brooke/Castro fans who will vote for Cook instead of Archuleta.

I am still disappointed with Cook. I mean this is the finale. If all of your three performances are terrible it is hard to imagine victory. I mean he was good tonight but I am used to Cook=brilliant

Soooo confused about the pimping comments. Simon has gone on every show possible saying DC, DC, DC. He has continually said that DA was just OK. DA was better tonight. Both were great. It was a great show, but the kid was better. I’m a DC fan. I can admit it. It’s probably better that he does lose so he can do the type of album he wants, and I find it hard to believe that TPTB want Archie for the kind of record he’ll probably put out.

The fix? The fix was probably giving DA “Longer” last week and not allowing him to make it more contemporary, and then Syesha prob messed that up by picking Fever.

The two seem to like eachother and both are getting a deal. Win-win.

Honestly – their interaction together has made me a fan of both.

Great job AI, the finale was fun and emotional.

The pimping of Archie was obnoxious. Latest numbers on DialIdol have Cookie ahead. However, what is the trend on voting when it hits the West coast?

outside of your phone plan, does it cost $$$ to text in a vote??

I don’t think David Cook ever liked the “competition” aspect of the entire show. And when it all came down to it, with the boxing reference and all, between he and a 17 year old boy — I don’t think he had it in him to take him out. Simon was disappointed that he didn’t come out swinging, with Billy Jean in the end, but DC wanted to show a progression — his own progression. I loved his third song. He doesn’t have that killer attitude, does he? This is music, this is what he loves — not to take out some boy. There’s more important things in his life right now — and, well, he’s just too kind.

The videos are up..

“But if anything, this should put to rest a lot of TCO talk. Wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t everyone convinced yesterday that Cook was pre-chosen? I guess not anymore. LOL. Maybe the judges just say what they think, after all?”

Took the words right out of my mouth Tina…

Dial Idol:

DC- 58.41
DA- 54.88

I am suddenly getting through a lot on 05. Get those votes in now before the Mountain time zone starts voting in a few minutes (is that right?).

A well-matched finale is good for AI, but our MJ is right à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  as always à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  that AI needs a superstar winner to bolster the franchise. Tay Tayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s assessment of Archie as the next Wayne Newton seems about right to me. Having DC win AI probably does more for the showà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s reputation than for Cookieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s career. Regardless of the final results tomorrow night, Cookieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s first post-AI album should outsell Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s.

I agree. Remember what Simon said about KElly Clarkson, that they also owe AI to her? Because if she wasnt that successful or incredible, the show wouldn’t be this BIIIG as it is now.

Now, AI is losing grip on things and maybe they need change and different image. COOK winning would certainly boost AI image. Plus, I do not have doubt in him succeeding. Thus, the first male idol to be really successful.

1st round:

Cookie was pretty freakin’ good, and for me to admit that is huge because I can’t stand anyone covering U2. Good job DC!

Archie was boring as usual. Par for the course, and the judges are full of crap. I seriously wonder if it sounds that different in the studio?

2nd round:

Cookie *phew* was not as bad as I was expecting. I still didn’t really like it (but that was because of the song itself, not his performance), but it was upbeat and dare I say… fun? I’m actually ok with that! I would have really liked it had I not been exposed to the original. The judges are all over the place tonight… I’m so confused by them

Archie sang his song really well, but it was so boring. Sounded like a song from some Disney movie or something. Simon was right as far as the song choice was concerned, but not as far as the execution.

3rd:

Cookie’s was very pretty and he sang it extremely well, but that was not an appropriate song choice for the finale. It was too understated and boring. Simon was right that it was a bad choice of song, but wrong that he should have sang Billie Jean or Hello. David’s reply to Simon, that he didn’t want to sing something he had already sang, was right on.

Archie was once again predictable and I don’t think he sang Imagine as well as he did the first time. Again, I think it was a bad song choice for the finale. The judges once again, are deaf. Whether or not you like Cookie or Archie, it was so not as black and white as they said. This will be a close race.

DC deserves it, but I won’t be surprised either way. I’m off to vote.

Many posters are saying thing I noticed about DA being pitchy on the 2nd song. Yet, the 3 stooges who are in the tank all say they loved the performance and Simon says rd 2 goes to DA. A blatant shill job by the judges.

It is reverse psychology people. Just keep voting for DC. Having good luck on 05.

Loved David Cook tonight, he was awesome.

But I have to say that for pure entertainment I got huge laughs watching David A trying to keep his eyes open while singing. That struggle was fun to see. And they were never completely open, just a squint if he managed it.

OMG…

First impressions.

First round: Archie!

Second round: Cookie! He made the terrible song somewhat fun. Kudos. Archie was all kinds of pitchy.

Third round: Cookie! I am not a fan of Collective Soul, but that was beautiful. Archie… not as good as the first time he did it and I wasn’t a fan then. I don’t like runs and riffs on that song. He doesn’t understand the song. Sigh.

I’m pretty shocked at the bus they tossed towards Cookie tonight.

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“But if anything, this should put to rest a lot of TCO talk. Wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t everyone convinced yesterday that Cook was pre-chosen? I guess not anymore. LOL. Maybe the judges just say what they think, after all?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Took the words right out of my mouth Tinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

Couldn’t disagree more. Cookie served them a purpose and then they chewed him up and spat him out. Obviously, his performances had nothing to do with Simon’s comments. They got their David vs David finale. David A’s popularity is slipping so they had give little D a slamdunk in hopes that he will win. Gah.

archie just turned RED on Dial Idol!

03 is open alot . but for the 1st 10 mins i got like 2 votes lol

Everyone cracks me up. Opinions go in so many different directions. Either all DA or DC. I think that DA will win in the end because in the long run, DC wanted to go on his own. It will work so much better for him in the long run.

DA was awesoome and unfortunately DC was okay.

Cook was definitely the chosen one going into the finale. And Cook was good tonight.

However Archie was completely on fire tonight (not literally, stop that). He beat Cook hands down.

If it was just tonight, it would be a complete slam dunk for Archie. However, Cook’s got an army, so we will see how this turns out.

David Cook stayed true to his artistic identity, and he rocks!!!
David Archuleta stayed safe and went to his ballads sappy route, as that was the route they gave to him, seriously I think he doesn’t want this route, if you watch his audition, he like more uptempo songs, he got molded into this Clay Aiken balladeer role, and it made him boring.

Raise your hand if you think they just threw COOK…..UNDER the BUS!!! I haven’t read the rest of the comments, so I apologize if someone else has already said this. I suspect they have!

Thanks for the update, Sally. My DI is still showing Jordin beating Blake.

archie just turned RED on Dial Idol!

Keep voting for David Cook!!! We the people will not be denied!! AI does not control us!! That was the most blatant shill job I have ever seen for a AI contestant. It made me sick.

Wow, I couldn’t believe the over praising of Archie. Either Simon’s trying reverse psychology or he’s afraid of PapaArchie being so close to him in the audience. I usually only vote until I get through once, maybe twice. But tonight I voted until I got through 10 times. DCFTW!

i cant get on DI it wont load….ARGGG

If DialIdol doesn’t have Archie ahead after tonight, DC will win. His fan base is just bigger. Too bad kid, you had an incredible night. If you lose, it’ll be the third year in a row the best singer has lost IMHO. But you’ve joined Elliott, and Daughtry in my favorite losers ever. And they’re doing fine. Join the club, Archie. You’ll be fine.

The judges comments tonight made me want to barf. I was expecting Randy to drop to his knees and kiss pageant boys feet. They were brutal to Cook who showed versatility and he was great. Diva , on the other hand – all ballads – all sound the same – all boring. It was shameful what they did to Cook tonight but should we expect anything else ? David Cook will sell cd’s for a long time , Botboy will end up like so many other kids in the entertainment industry ( ala. Spears , Lohan etc. etc.) His dads eyes see nothing but dollar signs.

What I don’t understand is why the judges seemed to be favoring Archie and tossing DC off the subway platform (because that’s what they did). Cook is so much more marketable and is set up to challenge Daughtry after Idol. I even like DC and didn’t care for Daughtry much at all. So what’s the rationale? Archie will have Jordin-esque sales… not horrible, but certainly not multi-platinum. I don’t get it.

I’m just wondering how long Archie fans would be willing to buy nothing but a CD with ballads? Maybe the older ones, but, the younger set? I don’t think so.

What I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t understand is why the judges seemed to be favoring Archie and tossing DC off the subway platform (because thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s what they did). Cook is so much more marketable and is set up to challenge Daughtry after Idol. I even like DC and didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t care for Daughtry much at all. So whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the rationale? Archie will have Jordin-esque salesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ not horrible, but certainly not multi-platinum. I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get it.

maybe they know Achuleta NEEDS to win in order to sell some records. His career is down the toilet if he loses. Cook on the other hand will have success no matter the result so they want to cash in on both and they can only do that if Archuleta wins.

David Cook did three songs in three different styles, two of the songs had his own guitar accompanyment. He showed more skill by a mile than Archie who sanfg three safe sappy songs. The middle one was a disaster tonally and his Imagine was not nearly as good as his firt effort on it.

I was shocked by the judges and I don’t shock easily. this should make even Kirsten break down and vote for Cook.

an hour and 20 mins in, my thumb is already blistering, and i’ve only gotten thru once! i guess thats a good thing tho!

again about simon.. i think he REALLY wanted cookie to win, and cookie let him down, therefore he said, u know what screw it then, archie has a “knockout.”

waaahh, i love dc (have since day ONE) and am sad the judges didnt give him more props.. paula was actually the only one that seem to have given him any kudos at all.

wonder tho, if cookie DOES win, will all archie fans be screaming “foul” tomorrow nite b/c of the pimpage from the judges.. correct me if i’m wrong, but on any prior season, when simon says, in so many words, you’ve won.. havent they? (ruben, fantasia, carrie???)

Well I have been voting for 1 hr and 15 minutes for DC and STILL not able to get through. I am a JC fan now voting for DC. I am extremely pi$$ed at this show and their manipulations. shenanigans. I like DC for versatility and uniqueness. DA is a mini robot. And those who I think DC didn’t give his all, how do you know that? Just saying

Cook’s phone lines are f’ed up. I keep getting “All circuits are busy.” Could they really be that busy on all three lines?

Remember guys, dialidol doesn’t count text messaging or am I incorrect. If they don’t DC will be in trouble as alot of younger people text dial. I will be texting at least 400 times.

It’s a win/win for them if Archie takes the title,and, Cook is the runnerup. They get 2 for the price of one. That isn’t too hard to figure out, is it?

Definitely having good luck with 05 now. Getting through is easier as the night wears on.

im still getting alot of votes in on 03, im really surprised. I thought it would be harder

Thanks, cricket. I agree. David Cook was in this to do what he wants to do, which is share his music and do it for a living. And that included LEARNING something along the way, for him. It was another singing contest/talent show for Archie. Cook is the most original, truest, talented, gifted, real-life guy I’ve seen on Idol. Or anywhere really. I’ve seen a lot of bands & singers, in a lot of different venues & situations. I’ll buy his albums and I’ll go see him live because he connects. Love Mr. Cook. Voting some more……

I’m in Northern VA, and have been working 03, getting in perhaps once in every 10 calls…. for Cook, of course.

I’m pissed off and I’m voting.

I’m getting through WAY too much on line 03. Keep voting people.

Also, whoever is posting the Dial Idol numbers…please keep it up. I can’t get that site to load to save my life, and it’s driving me nuts.

Current DialIdol busy percentages on lines:

DC#1 – 57.4
DC#3 – 56.8
DC#2 – 54.9
DA#1 – 51.4
DA#3 – 50.6
DA#2 – 47.5

Goodness . . . after what everyone was saying about DC getting thrown under the bus I was expecting it to happen! It didn’t . . . Randy and Paula loved him, Simon liked him too . . . just not the song . . .

I actually really liked DC’s 2nd song . . . but I have to agree with Simon that DA’s was more “I just won” worthy . . . the song itself, not necessarily the performance of it . . .

I completely got chills DA’s 1st and 3rd! Wow!

My report: DA won the night . . .

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think David Cook ever liked the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“competitionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  aspect of the entire show. And when it all came down to it, with the boxing reference and all, between he and a 17 year old boy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think he had it in him to take him out. Simon was disappointed that he didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t come out swinging, with Billy Jean in the end, but DC wanted to show a progression à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  his own progression. I loved his third song. He doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have that killer attitude, does he? This is music, this is what he loves à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  not to take out some boy. Thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s more important things in his life right now à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  and, well, heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s just too kind.

I’d agree with that sentiment. I believe that David Cook does want to win but I also think a huge aspect for him is the opportunity that being on Idol affords. He’s mentioned on several occasions that Idol is an opportunity and so he’s grasped it with both hands and gone out and shown the world and music industry who he is and what he can do in the hopes of furthering the career he so desires. He wasn’t in it to “take anyone down,” just do the best for himself right up to and including the finale – if he wins it will be his bonus.

The coin toss matters. DC did a fine job on all 3 of his songs but DA getting to go 2nd and nailing his songs didn’t help. He got bigger comments and longer interaction with the judges each time. I wonder if the positions were reversed if DA’s comments would have been so gushy. ‘Cause really, DC did do a great job and his comments reflected that.

Well, that was interesting. Actually, I’m kind of impressed with the way Archie came out swinging tonight. He was playing to win – which gives me hope that the kid has more backbone than I originally gave him credit for. (Or his dad was stage left with a cattle prod).

That said – I’m in complete disagreement with the stooges. I think Cookie won the night (and that’s the way I’m voting).

The coronation songs were both heinous. But I thought that both of them did the best they could with the drek. Cookie rocked that shitty song out.

I really thought Archie did a good job with DLTSGDM – but I think it’s a tough choice – because we’ve seen it done well on this very stage before.

I thought Cook’s first song was really good, and his third song was quite beautiful. It may not have been the overt kind of oversinging the judges tend to favor, but to me it was really lovely.

I’m not a fan of Imagine, or Archie’s run-a-plenty take on it. But, clearly the kid’s got talent.

I was disappointed in the excessive gushing about Archie tonight, not because he didn’t do well, but because it was completely disingenuous. The judges gave the impression that somehow Archie was miles better than Cookie – and I completely disagree with that. I saw this as a pretty damn close race tonight. For me, Cookie edged his way to the front.

I’m just a huge fan of what David Cook can do with even the crappiest songs, and I’d really love to see him win. That said, if he doesn’t, I’m not even going to blame it on the bus tonight. While I think the bus driving over Cook was a big one, I still have to give Archie credit for doing his best and leaving it all out on the stage tonight.

Even if the cooktards lose tonight at the ballot box, surely we’ll win at the cd store :)

Ruben Rules! Randy Sucks! Clive is an irrelevant fossil!

For all those wondering what’s up with the pimping of David A – Lordy Mercy they have been pimping him all season!! Why stop now.

Archie easily won the night, I think this was overall his best week of the whole competition (talk about picking the right time to peak). However, I think Cook easily wins on an overall week to week basis, so for that reason my votes will be going to him. I definitely think this is gonna be the closest its ever been in votes, and I will not at all be surprised regardless of which one wins. Will be interesting to see the results tomorrow, which is way more than I can say for any of the four seasons prior to this I’ve watched (I knew Fantasia, Carrie, Taylor, and Jordin had it in the bag by the time the finale came.)

I’m afraid for David A., his voice went out when he was talking. And he acts like he’s a nervous wreck or just damn tired.

If nothing else, David Archuleta has made this very interesting. So I gotta give him some credit. he really upped his game tonight. This is going to be one of the closest votes ever.

Both Davids were terrific in the first round. If Archie won, it wasn’t my much.

However Archie’s coronation song was clearly the better of the two in the second round. It sounded like a coronation song, and he sang it very well.

I really liked ‘The World I Know’ because it was new, different and progressive. ‘Billie Jean’ or ‘Hello’ would have just been a repeat of flashbulbs going off around DavidC’s head, an image of which I had grown tired.
Archie’s ‘Imagine’ was just more of the same only worse. Don’t agree that lyrics should be manipulated to change the intent of the song writer.
So DavidC won round three, but Archie won the night(it was hardly a knocklout).

Based on the track record over the season, DavidC should win. But, Syesha picked most of her support from casual viewers, and based upon the judges’ over the top reaction to Archie tonight, he is going to get a majority of votes from those driveby voters.

So it is a toss up which really sets up huge ratings for tomorrow’s finale.
I’m loathe to say it but good work by TPTB.

I’m sorry, I know I’m biased, but I’ve listened to all the songs again, and I think “The World I Know” is one of the most underrated songs I’ve heard on this show….I just still can’t get over Simon. Ughhhh!

“The judges comments tonight made me want to barf.”

me too. I will be voting for Cook until my fingers fall off. Not going to let those judges get away with manupilating the process.

dial idol:

Cook 53.54
Archuleta: 46.88

My Jason Castro GoPhone is coming out of retirement. I have one more week of unlimited text messages and now they all belong to Cookie. That’s one way to get around the busy signals.

Another is to vote with a cell phone in the other hand. I rarely get busy signals with my cell.

I’m dedicating every vote to Adam Cook and Luke Menard. I may be falling for Simon’s manipulations but, hey, this is my now. Dream big, Cooktards!

Well I’m not a young ‘un and I’m voting for COOK. I added a txt plan to my mbl just for this! After I spent about $40 texting a week or so ago… Keep voting! Yes, texting is a good way to go.

I was thinking reverse psychology too for Simon because he has said all week that he wants David Cook to win.

Yes but he said that about Daughtry too and look where that got him. :)

Maura Johnston’s live blogging of the finale is hilarious. My favorite line is her description of Archie’s coronation song: “This song sounds like “Don’t Cry Out Loud” neutered by a grape-juice-and-communion-wafers hangover.”

panz
May 20th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Thanks for the update, Sally. My DI is still showing Jordin beating Blake.

panz, up at the top to DialIdol, there is a “Season” button.
Use the scroll bar to find “Season 7.”

whether you think that Archie always sings “boring” and “sappy” ballads or not, American Idol is in the end a SINGING competition. NOT a be musically diverse competition. DAVID ARCHULETA HANDS DOWN WAS THE BETTER VOCALIST TONIGHT. DAFTMFW!!!!

No one has answered, is dialidol counting text messaging. Also, they haven’t counted the west coast. What is up with that?

Guys, DC has a chance. Please don’t think he doesn’t, and please don’t give up on him. I’m voting as hard as I can, because dammit, he was so much better than Arch all season, I’m pissed off as all hell at the bus throwing tonight. It was ridiculous.
I’m hoping for a miracle, and I’m hoping the Cooktards make that miracle happen. If DI is to be believed – It’s entirely possible for DC to win it all yet.

Am I the only one who actually kind of liked David Cook’s “Dream Big” song? I thought, while not perfect, it was a fair amount less cheesy than “In This Moment” or “A Moment like this” or “This is my now.” anyone? anyone?

I doubt DialIdol will mean much tonight because of the text voting.

Screw you AI. First what they did to Michael now this? I feel like I got sideswiped and kicked in the stomach.

Can someone give a DI update? It won’t work for me.

Didn’t DC even say tonight that in his opinion the competition was over and tonight was just for fun (or something along those lines?). I think with Simon’s coming out and pimping him the last few days and the whole weird boxing theme going on, DC winning makes him almost look like a bully (this of course is not stopping me from voting, lol).

If I have to be inundated with DA’s syrupy coronation song being played out on the airwaves, I’m going to stalk Randy and Simon and beat them with a stick.

All this being said, I have to admit the way the judges throw contestants under the bus is painful to watch. I saw it with Jason, Syesha and now David C. Win or lose, I think they should leave the contestants (and their fans, who are supposed to be the ones purchasing their CDs last time I checked) to their fate. You’re only there to judge their individual performance, its not necessary to riddle them with potshots throughout. The “what were you thinking?”, “crushing the competition”, “not good enough to get you through to the finals”, and “knockout” comments – which provide no useful feedback for the performers – should be kept to a minimum.

Thanks, NOLA. All the usual buttons on DI aren’t there tonight. Now, I can’t even get to DI.

Oh well, this reminds me of the old days, when I had no idea how things were going.

Folks it doesn’t matter what we think, David A has won it….Clive likes him…he’s young and he’s got the girl teens….But don’t you wonder about maybe he will crack his voice wide open….can he handle the pressure?

My Jason Castro GoPhone is coming out of retirement. I have one more week of unlimited text messages and now they all belong to Cookie. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s one way to get around the busy signals.

Another is to vote with a cell phone in the other hand. I rarely get busy signals with my cell.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m dedicating every vote to Adam Cook and Luke Menard. I may be falling for Simonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s manipulations but, hey, this is my now. Dream big, Cooktards!

Yay, Terrie! I’m voting for Cookie because he deserves the win over Archie. I’m also voting for everyone else who has been tossed under the bus, especially the ones who have shown some originality and creativity!

ETA: And when Josiah outsells Archuletta, I’m going to throw a party. No ill will towards Archie, just TPTB.

DI update:

DC–52.12
DA–44.76

No one has answered, is dialidol counting text messaging. Also, they havenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t counted the west coast. What is up with that?

DialIdol does not count text messages.

DI counts the west coast as they start voting. Patience!

No one has answered, is dialidol counting text messaging. Also, they havenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t counted the west coast. What is up with that?

The answer is no.

Rebecamia May 20th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

Can someone give a DI update? It wonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t work for me.

cook: 52.12
Archuleta: 44.76

Dialidol results:
David Cook 1
52.85
– -

David Archuleta 2
– -
45.83

DI results just given.

Just heard the second songs sung tonight.
Can’t really believe all the DA pimping either.
I loved DC’s second song. DA’s had good energy, but not the best notes.

Back to the show…………..

“Chicago-sally
May 20th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Folks it doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t matter what we think, David A has won ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.Clive likes himà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s young and heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s got the girl teensà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.But donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you wonder about maybe he will crack his voice wide openà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.can he handle the pressure?”

Can he handle the pressure??- When you dominate a Finale like he just did in frot of millions of people…I think he can handle the pressure sally…

correct me if ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m wrong, but on any prior season, when simon says, in so many words, youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve won.. havent they? (ruben, fantasia, carrie???)

If I remember correctly, in season 2, after Clay cheesed out Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon declared that he probably just won with that performance. The reason I remember that is b/c I was a big Ruben fan, and therefore disappointed.

Anyway, I don’t guess anyone’s still crying shenanigans with Simon like they were this morning. Way to totally toss Cook under the bus, AI. Ugh!

I hope it all blows up in their face. Randy nauseates me with his ridiculous, over the top praise fest of Archie.

Don’t blame DA for Randy’s gushing.

OOPS

Folks it doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t matter what we think, David A has won it

He has not won it untill the confetti falls on his head! VOTE for Cook! He has done so much this season to deserve this win!!!
I can’t believe Simon threw him under the bus like that. I’m still shocked.
The only thing that would make this right is him winning. Against all odds – DCFTMFW!!! Dammit!!!

I still say kids don’t have the lockdown on texting ability. Those with greater years have greater funding. heh.

Folks it doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t matter what we think, David A has won ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.Clive likes himà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

well, I think it does matter what we think – if we’re voting right now. And, at this point, even if AI trots out Clive to boost his ego, that fossil is nearly powerless at the record company these days. So, who he likes isn’t an issue in my opinion.

“I doubt DialIdol will mean much tonight because of the text voting.”

Don’t people text every week? Dial Idol is not 100% accurate, but its close!

Kids are given text messaging all the time. Especially in CA etc.

Donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t blame DA for Randyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s gushing.

I hold no ill will toward Archie whatsoever. My Randy hate existed long before he came along.

Simon NEVER told Clay he won. He may have said he won that round. He was never in Clay’s camp. I have that entire season on tape.

2 hours in.. have gotten thru 3 times so far. will continue to vote the full four hours! will look and feel like shit in the morning for work, but its the price to pay for having the best of the season win…

about the finale tho, am i the ONLY one who thought the boxing thing was cute? i liked when they came out w/ the gloves and the “david babyface archuleta” weighing 100lbs soaking wet was hillarious! oh well….

i feel good about cookie being ahead w/ the phone percentage, but the texting part makes me all kinds of nervous!

keep voting.. next stop: cooktardistan!!

Hi, I’m new here. But has anyone considered that we might have been duped by Simon saying he was for Cook? They originally wanted Archie, and maybe they did all along? The push for Cook might have been to make Archie the underdog going into tonight so he would get more votes. How else can you explain Simon’s turnaround? I know Archie gave his best performance tonight. But what about Cook for originality? For not playing it safe. Nothing was said about that and if Simon had really been behind him wouldn’t he have mentioned it?
Just my thoughts. Any comments?

Back to dialing for DC!

Question:
Why don’t we get to hear Cook’s voice thanking us for voting, like we have in previous seasons on finale night?

And when Josiah outsells Archuletta, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m going to throw a party. No ill will towards Archie, just TPTB.

PJ, can I get on the guest list? I’ll bring dessert.

we old folks can text too and have more phones and money to do so than the young whippersnappers.

Folks it doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t matter what we think, David A has won it.

Isn’t that what President Thomas Dewey said in 1948?

Cookie fans, don’t get discouraged. He’s been ahead on Dial Idol all night and is widening his lead.

This made me feel better:

http://theresmyidol.com/ithoughtsbackup/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1316&Itemid=848

Idol Thoughts — and she gets Cook. Progression, not competition. Artistry and connection to the listener over pushing the right buttons, or checking off all the right boxes….

I love Cook. He’s the real deal.

DCFTMFW, tonight and always.

i’m hoping the archie fans will be getting tucked into bed soon. hee.

So…I guess this is what Simon meant by “a humdinger”. I am not amused. AT ALL.

I am NOT and have never been a David A fan but I was SOOOO impressed with him tonight. I KNEW David C should have sang one of his songs from before. He was tired , not all there vocally tonight at all. But I still like David C better from past performances. But my son gets to vote for David A tonight – I will throw some in for David C when I can yank it from his hands. My son is 11 and his bedtime is 9:30 so he has until then at least to vote for David A then I will for Cook till 10

ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m hoping the archie fans will be getting tucked into bed soon. hee.

Don’t they roll up the sidewalks in Utah around 9:00pm?

lastminute, I agree completely. I was wondering just that as I watched the show.

Simon NEVER told Clay he won. He may have said he won that round. He was never in Clayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s camp. I have that entire season on tape.

He told him at the end of Bridge over Troubled Water that he thinks that just won him the competition.

Uh oh, on my local news station, they just reported listeners calling in complaining there is something wrong with the phone lines for David Cook. I’m in the central Ohio area.

Maura Johnstonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s live blogging of the finale is hilarious.

Beesims, thanks for the tip. Maura is too funny. Where else can you read an American Idol play-by-play with references to Mike Watt and Iggy and the Stooges?

AI just started here on the west coast. Was darling Jason yawning again? Heh.

I got distracted by DWTS there for awhile but I am back to voting again. Still breezing through on 05. I’ve had one or two “dead air” moments on 05 but no other problems.

I think Simon said that Clay might’ve won the competition .

Uh oh, on my local news station, they just reported listeners calling in complaining there is something wrong with the phone lines for David Cook. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m in the central Ohio area.

I call shenanigans!

the dial idol margin keeps getting wider:

almost 9 points now

Cook: 50.39
Archuleta: 41.43

Cook’s fans are probably jamming the lines.

Dial Idol is down.

Duke,
I don’t believe for a second that he dominated tonight. I think the judges gave it to him on a platter. Did he really dominate-didn’t sound that way at my house. I think cookie was better in round 2 and 3. I saw no domination and this is being completely honest. My son who doesn’t watch the show didn’t see archie being dominate either. I guess sometimes we see with our hearts but who knows.

The boxing bits were cheesy. We actually didn’t hear any singing until 14 minutes into the stupid show.

Cook was phenomonal tonight. I loved his AI cheesy song and his other two performances. He proved once again that he can sing anything and, out of all of the kids this year, I will buy anything he puts out.

And the kid stepped it up tonight – who would have guessed that? In my world of AI conspriracy theories, was this the game plan all along for little David as instructed by Evil pappa? After a couple of break out performances (Shop Around and Imagine) to develop a strong fan base, did he coast for a while? Did he hold back until he needed to pull out the big guns again, like during the final two? Because he was a different kid tonight and pretty impressive. I’m not one of his fans, but you got to give credit where credit is due, even though I still would not buy his CD. Maybe I’m just being silly!

The kid had the edge tonight, I hate to admit because I would really like to see Cook win. I don’t think it was Cook’s singing or performances that were overshadowed by little David, I think it was the shock of little David stepping it up instead of caving into the pressure, which I myself expected him to do. He was the same goofball when he was talking, but, tonight, he sang every note in every song with confidence and passion.

But………I still think this is a very close contest and it’s still anyone’s game. Cook could most certainly win the whole thing. He’s been consistent throughout the entire competition while staying true to himself. I guess some people will vote based just on tonight’s performances, but I think most have decided who their favorite is and who they want to win, so don’t count Cook out!!

I’m holding my breath and hoping all the little text messengers of the world are in bed.

And I think a slew of college kids, a nice big generation of text messengers, would vote David Cook over Archie….at least I would if I were still in college.

I don’t text. Hate the contraption. Phone’s are to talk on, but regardless, I’m betting a slew of text messages Cookie’s way once the fangirlies go to bed for Archie.

Thank goodness for bedtimes.

I was very pleased with David Cà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performances. What a delight to have a Cornation song that rocks. I also thought Davidà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s last song was outstanding. How brave to not go with the safe choices. I also appreciated his emotionalism with that last song. He was much better than what Simon gave him credit for.

With the build up that Simon gave to David A. everyone will be shocked if he doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t win. This young man has a beautiful voice, but I was disappointed that he stuck with three ballads. Is it possible that his à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Imagineà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  was not as good as the first time? Did anyone notice that he seem to be hyperventilating after his second song. Poor kid was indeed nervous. I hope he will have some training for interviewing.

I think it is a 50/50 chance for either one to win! Personally, I think David Cook can handle the pressure better and his music is more marketable. David A. will have a career that will go beyond making a CD. It was a GOOD show tonight.

Sorry, I’m not going to be told who I should like or have somebody jammed down my throat.

DC is almost 10 points ahead on DialIdol.

Keep voting!!!!!

Keep voting!!!!!!

Keep voting!!!!!

wow cook is way ahead on dialidol. wow.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t believe for a second that (DA) dominated tonight

He pretty much dominated my gag reflex.

Last week, DC had a 10 pt lead over DA on Dial Idol, and he barely edged him out, according to Zabasearch. This week is about the same. We’ll see….

One of the wonders of the world for me is the love for DA!!!! I just don’t “feel” him. I especially didn’t get all the love for DLTSGDOM – heck, Bo’s version was better!!!!!!

I’m breaking my voting silence this season tonight for Cookie!!!

My brother doesn’t even watch this show. Watched tonight because of me. Didn’t agree with the judges at all. In fact, the pimping was so blatantly one way that it made him want to vote for Cook. Can’t say that I stopped him.

Bottom line, I think Cook sang brilliantly. The last song will go down to me as one of the most underrated performances in the history of the show. I really felt his pain through that song. I don’t think he threw the competition at all. I just think that he was aiming for something else, something different, and Idol doesn’t necessarily reward that. The way Cook went into that chorus on “The World I Know”…that was the stuff moments are made of. Nothing big. Nothing fancy. Just a good song with a good voice singing it.

But to be perfectly honest, hearing about Luke Menard today and knowing Adam Cook was in the audience is just a perfect reminder of what David Cook has been saying all along: that American Idol is just a television show. I’m sure to him, there is just so much more than winning the show. Regardless of what the judges said, to have that moment in front of his brother, to me, is worth more than a simple title.

its 11:11 everyone, make a wish!!
DCFTMFW!!!

I am so happy to see the voters are ignoring that over the top shill job by the judges! Keep voting for David Cook!!!!!!!!!

you know Holly i kept waiting for simon to bring up his treacly (sp?) ballad remark and when he didn’t, i was stupified. When a contestant goes the unsafe route and does a song not done before-i think they deserve some credit for that. when a retread is done-i think it should be pointed out that no guts were involved there. cookie could have played it safe but didn’t. He did clives song which was a way harder song to sing than the one give to archie. He rocked the second song and it was likeable. He totally changed direction for the third song. Archies songs-all.the.same and not a word about it. Manipulation galore.

Gwen, Zabasearch is phony.

And, I agree, Bo’s version of DLTSGDOM, was superior, mainly because of the deep, rich, texture of Bo’s voice. But, Archie did a good job with it.

Zabasearch just called it for David Archuleta. They’ve never been wrong at this point. They called it similarly early for Jordin Sparks last season.

St. Lucia,
i bet the little texters will be hiding under the covers with flashlites. they are tenacious.

The newscasters on the Fox station I get here came on afterwards and said Cook came out like a seasoned professional giving a concert rather than treating it like a competition, and because of this, apparently Archie should win.

So we take from this the lesson that a seasoned, artistic professional should automatically take second place to a pageant singer who lacks originality but hits all the glory notes and runs on cue? Sorry, just no.

If David Cook played safe, he would have done a cheesy ballad and showed the whole world that he is at least as good as Archuleta vocally (we have seen it in “Music of the Night” and “First time I ever saw your face”). But he chose to be himself (as a rocker) and poured his heart out in his final song (this was why he had tears in his eyes). It takes A LOT OF GUTS to do that. With a crown and a contract before you, an ordinary person would be tempted and play safe (like DA when he chose to sing “Imagine” again (duh)).
This is actually what we love about David Cook. So, David Cook is still the winner to me no matter whether he wins or not. And I am definitely buying his albums.

I just watched the videos. The World I Know was brilliant. All 3 of Cook’s songs were REAL. He left himself on that stage. Archie left his oh-so-trained voice, with it’s classroom practiced songs & runs in the air. Yeah, it’s a singing contest. But the PRIZE is a recording contract, to make & sell albums & I hope tour & do live shows to support said albums. I suppose it’s just me, but I just do not connect with David A. Cook rips me up, makes me smile, makes me THINK, breaks my heart, & puts everything back together again.

dulce,
goodness, your post is making me tear up.

Zabasearch has been wrong most of the season. they predicted Syesha’s outster every darn week.

If people dont want American Idol to lose all of its credibility as a SINGING COMPETITION where people are judged on SINGING ability, then they would pray to God that Archie wins.

I hope for Cook’s sake that he doesnt win because of the backlash that will follow. I like em both, but I pray, SIMPILY FOR THE STAKE OF THE DECLINING AMERICAN IDOL, that DA wins because he deserves it.

So what do you love more, Idol or Cook?

“And I think a slew of college kids, a nice big generation of text messengers, would vote David Cook over Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.at least I would if I were still in college.”

im in college- and im voting for Archie…as are about 10 other people in college i know…there goes that theory

YEAH, votedc! I wish I’d said that….

Gary,
i think at this point, if cookie did win the votes, they would still give archie the win because it would be such a huge embarassment to pimp someone so unjustly and have the other guy win. This was the worst night i ever witnessed from the judges. something fair and impartial would have been nice.

sumidol May 20th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I am NOT and have never been a David A fan but I was SOOOO impressed with him tonight. I KNEW David C should have sang one of his songs from before. He was tired , not all there vocally tonight at all.

I agree. David SHOULD have done Billie Jean or Hello. His song choices didn’t have enough of a competitive drive. Too bad someone didn’t tell him how Kat re-sang Rainbow after just having done it recently. Cookie should have finished with a bang. I liked the song he did. It was real pretty, but…

how can zabasearch call it when voting is not over? Voting just started on the west coast

I think there are more important things than who wins AI. And, I personally, don’t care about their credibility. There’s much more to winning than singing. They have to do concerts, interviews, endorsements, etc. This is where Cook has the advantage.

But, back to my grassy knoll to watch the proceedings as they unfold.

And, to answer the above question, I love David Cook more than Idol, and, I’m not voting.

I’m in college too and my whole floor is voting Cook. David A always sounds tongue tied to me. Best vocalist is a VERY subjective title.

gotten thru about 4 times now…
i dunno u guys, i mean is it really OUR decision to make? sometimes i wonder.
s2 finale, i voted for clay til the lines went dead and he still didnt win. yes, i am only one person, but that season rubbed me wrong (not that i disliked ruben).
also s4 (and i LOVE carrie) but i voted for bo and look what happened there.
just seems like everytime the judges pretty much come out and say “you’ve won,” they indeed have…
::sigh::
still voting tho!
DCFTMFW!!!

duke
if this were only a singing competition Elliott would have won as would have Melinda. takes more than the ability to sing.

Yea, don’t rely on zabasearch, they were pretty unreliable this whole season. I would go with dialidol before them.

After this season, I love David Cook way more than Idol! I could live without Idol ever again. I will not live without David Cook and his music. The World I Know was incredible. David A. played it safe. Cook was doing something else entirely. AND…he can SING.

I thought they were both great tonight, but I was pleasantly surprised by Archie. I think he had his best night of the season.

I always thought the U2 song was going to be a big ask, just because it’s difficult to personalise. I thought DC was great but not as good as DA tonight.

However, I have no problem if he is crowned tomorrow night, as I think he has had an outstanding season.

Personally, I don’t think Simon threw him under a bus. I think he still prefers DC, but that Archie surprised him tonight and he would rather have seen DC reprise a song. Right or wrong, that was his opinion. He couldn’t have made it clearer how much he likes and respects DC as a contestant.

Sally, I’ve heard that zabasearch goes back after the AI results are announced and changes its numbers then. They are basing it on searches, not on votes. As you point out, West Coast is just starting and, here in the Midwest, we’ve got 100 minutes left.

If people dont want American Idol to lose all of its credibility as a SINGING COMPETITION where people are judged on SINGING ability, then they would pray to God that Archie wins.

I feel exactly the opposite. Idol needs to crown a winner who can sell records and become a major recording artist. It’s the ‘search for a superstar’. Considering that DC outsold Archie on iTunes at every turn, including having FOUR number ones on the iTunes top 100, I’d say he’s the superstar they are looking for.

Can someone give me the number to text VOTE to for DC?

I’d love to believe zabbasearch and not dialidol but the West Coast voting hasn’t even begun.

Sorry guys, but the best singer should always win. If they don’t, winning turns into a joke. Cook is a good singer though but I see Archie as a young Josh Groban. He’s that good.

kiwi,
is this the same simon that called cookie smug and arrogant? Simon was never on his side. I couldn’t believe when he said tonight what a great guy cookie is because he never said that before. called him smug.

So what do you love more, Idol or Cook?

I love Jason more – but I will vote for Cook tonight (as I listen to Jason)

But, when Simon tells a contestant, you’re really a nice guy, etc., you’re toast. He said it to Bo. But, we might be surprised.

on a somewhat O/T (sorry), but geez, the winner is supposed to be on leno thursday nite. guess if archie wins, i can finally get to bed on time!
and also, the tour coming up! archie will sing last and i’ll have to sit thru 5 or 6 one trick pony ballads until i can get to the good group sing.
oh well, good time to go pee i guess. =)

Zabasearch is always wrong! They change their predictions after the fact.
Just KEEP voting.
We can do this. DC deserves to win. This season will be a complete wash if Arch wins this.
I’m sick to my stomach. Voting helps.

dulce – my family are exactly the same. Never watch Idol, but I persuaded them tonight. I was delighted when they called afterwards not only to say they’d watched, but commented on how fabulous Cook was and what on earth was wrong with the judges.

Current DialIdol:
DC – 49
DA – 39

Best vocalist IS subjective. For me, Cook wins that part of the competition hands down as well. He proved he can sing anything in ALW week. I can absolutely appreciate though why Archie’s voice appeals to others.

OK thanks for the info on zabasearch being wrong. I knew something was not right unless the thing was rigged

But what if you don’t think Josh Groban is good, LOL

Dialidol.com update
DC 48.81
DA 38.68

Keeping sending Cookie your lovin’ votes!
Did anyone get the touching comment Paula made to DC about living in the truth? I heard it and cheered, but can’t remember it exactly.

If you remember, Please LMK.
It was beautiful!

Groban may not be your thing but I can’t see voting for the winner of Idol based on who’ll do a better job on interviews and endorsing products.

AInoob- text VOTE to 5702

I have a feeling that Simon was right in his assessment that Cookie made a fatal mistake by singing a new, and not particularly memorable song for his personal choice rather than reprise one of his standout past performances. Still It galls me that Archie’s interpretation of “Imagine” is looked upon with such reverence. First he edits the verses to find the one least offensive to the religious right and then he tarts up the chorus with all sorts of runs and oversinging. The lyrics of “Imagine” are so powerful in their simplicity that the song demands to be song with understatement and the most simple arrangement.

I am voting off and on for Cook but I won’t be destroyed if Archie wins it all. I don’t think Cook is fated to be the next Kat McPhee, Justin Guarini or Blake Lewis. He’s too smart and too talented to become this season’s joke.

At the rehearsal and taping, the audience was probably 50-50 on who their favorite was– maybe a few more Cook fans than Little David fans. But David’s songs got everyone going. Don’t Let The Sun brought the house down. And as the crowd responded to David’s very obvious passion, I could see David feeding off of it. I actually saw him straighten up and step up his performance as he heard how much the crowd loved it.

Both Davids got to pick 2 of their 3 final songs, and those were the second and third performances of the night. So both had an equal playing field. David A. chose a better Idol-esque coronation song and a better final song. David C. erred by not choosing one of the songs his fans loved during the season.

Considering all the pressure he was under, I think David A. picked great songs and delivered them. I told MJ that my impression of David A. at rehearsal was that he was in it to win it, and that David C. held back a little.

It’s a shame either has to lose. I’ll bet DC’s fans are voting like crazy for him right now.

By the way, DA messed up Imagine in rehearsal and was quite rattled by it. The clip at the end was from rehearsal; there is a very noticeable bad note. Pretty good comeback from that.

By the way, I sat next to David’s dad during the show. Winters in Alaska exude more warmth. Sorry, but he was a cranky old man (with a trophy wife).

The local fox news talked to Paula, who was marveling that Cook was the first finalist EVER to sing three new songs.

I’m not – I am voting because I think Cook was phenomenal. Is that an acceptable reason?

Is the West coast actually starting yet? I was under the impression that they were 3 hours behind me…if so, they won’t start voting for another 1/2 hour or so. Am I wrong? Believe me, it wouldn’t be the first time! :biggrin_wp:

Paula redeemed herself tonight in my eyes with her comments towards Cook. I know she always gushes about people, but given the context during which she said it as Simon and Randy were throwing him under the bus, she did good.

Fez (70′s show) is singing Don’t Worry Be Happy – this is better than AI!!!

Sorry, I didn’t mean that comment to you. Just to the people who feel Archie shouldn’t win because he’ll do a bad job on interviews. To me that’s not a good reason. But people vote for all kinds of reasons on Idol and that’s their right. The good news is after the show, the good singers usually prevail.

just curious… do u guys think archie got randy’s head out of his ass b4 bedtime??

Caffiend- I’m super Jealous…thats uber-cool.

i think they will crown DA the winner regardless of votes…truely i do.

Nice try, Duke, but I’m assuming its 5701. LOL, props for the pimpage though.

Wow, so he’s leading by that much on DialIdol? I’m shocked by that.

Since they were so close in votes last week, I just figured those two would be going into tonight about even fanbase-wise and the performances would be what would determine the winner. Archie outperformed Cookie tonight IMO. Not by much, mind you, to me Cookie was really good. But still, Archie won. So I just assumed he’d win, or if Cookie won, it would be in a squeaker.

It will be interesting to see where DI is after the pools close. This is SOOOOO interesting, I must admit.

Cook FTMFW!
East coasters, you’re got an hour and a half left. We can do this!!! Don’t quit on DC please. If someone has family members who can take over the button pushing for a little while, use them. Otherwise, just imagine DC winning… And use some ice for those fingers when the time is up.

Please, we need to get him there. Don’t stop.

They will not risk the credibility of the show by fudging the vote.

Dang. I’ve tried to vote for Cook a few times over the last few hours (pretty apathetically I might add. I thought he got shafted tonight by the judges, but I’ve got no horse in this race really), and I haven’t gotten through one. single. time. The Cook fans are damned determined.

i agree w/ duke.. whoever gets the most pimpage on finale nite will win (sadly not to mention UNFAIRLY!)
regardless, keep voting i shall!!!

Cooktard- real mature…dont be made 17yr old boy whomped up on experienced vet man

Have now watched the videos,,thanks MJ!

I think Simon mentioned “Hello” and “Billie Jean” to remind the audience of past DC performances. Love what DC said to him-a true artist!

i meant mad***…whoops, now i look retarded

KathrynTX – I have to post again tonight to say that I agree with you. This is the first full season of Idol I have watched. I’m not sure I will watch again with the same intensity but I WILL be continuing to follow David Cook.

I agree with everyone who says singing ability is subjective. Archie is probably technically better as he’s had a lot of training but he has a totally different tone and style to Cook. And I’ve said it once tonight but I’ll say it again, DC showcased himself and his artistry throughout the whole competition, not just his singing ability. That is why I give him the edge. The original premise of the Idol concept (I was still living in UK when Pop Idol started) was to find a contemporary recording artist, not the best technical singer. Obviously the winner ought to be able to sing, but the best technical singer is not necessarily the best pick as a contemporary recording artist. IMO DC has that over DA, and that’s why DA doesn’t quite have it in the bag …yet….

Oh, and just to rant on Simon – so you wanted a reprise from DC huh? And what would you have said if it wasn’t quite as good as before? Called him on it, or let it go like you did with Archie who sang Imagine very well but not as good as the first time? I stick by my initial thoughts that reprises are risky in a competition, totally different in a concert situation. I think DC made a smart choice – but as Simon always says, “it’s just an opnion.”

whoever gets the most pimpage on finale nite will win

so we all agree that clay should have won.

duke.. not mad.. just a little disgusted..
i have no prob w/ archie.. i dont even have a problem w/ him winning.
i just felt cookie got majorly disrespected 2nite at every turn.
jmo.

Just read this review on boston.com. She made this point about DC and winning……

Or maybe he didn’t care. He certainly doesn’t need to, and he knows it. Best-case scenario, he’s the next Daughtry (with a better singing voice). Worst-case scenario, he’s singing “Beauty School Dropout” in a Broadway revival of Grease. Either way, he’ll probably never have to put on a pair of fake boxing gloves and a red satin robe again. And if he is, indeed, the mensch of all mensches – which comes across on TV, and which Simon confirmed – then perhaps he sensed that this was more important to David Archuleta, and didn’t try too hard. At any rate, he sang what he wanted to sing. When Paula told him that “you’re standing in your truth,” I’ve got to admit, she had a point.

Something to think about.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/blog/2008/05/idol_boxing_ana.html

Duke, please give me a break. We all know what your agenda is. You’re fooling no one.

VOTE DC! VOTE for the musician, the artist, the daring soul who chose to stay true to himself and not backpaddle.
DCFTMFW!!!

judy, let’s not give the victory to Archie just yet, huh? This isn’t over by a long shot.

I just realized that this was my fav top 2 ever…anyone else feel the same way?

ps. I bet MJ is working real hard on her recap which will ever-so-carefully discredit Archie’s performances…

I’m looking for well-rounded artists, so I hope that prevails, despite the pimping tonight. I’m not quite sure TPTB know what they’re doing at this point.

Terrie, you’re first on my guest list. :)

Sorry MJ…I can’t help it……SHUT -UP DUKE..You are little brat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been voting for Cook all night on 01. Only one busy signal so far? What’s with that? I’m a bit worried.

Just anybody try to pry my land line or my IPHONE out of my hands.

DCFTW!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve got an hour and 19 minutes left to vote. What happens if I try to vote past the time limit? Will I get a message?

cook will win

lastminute – I’m on 03 and can’t get anything but a busy signal. So, cheer up!

I have no idea who will win tomorrow.
I loved DC’s last 2 performances, but Archie did will, too. [:

However, zabasearch has already proclaimed a winner and East coast isn’t finished voting and the Westies haven’t started? O_o

duke– i wouldnt say this is my fave final 2. i think i liked clay/ruben better. but regarding the top 12, this has been my 2nd fave season (right under s5).
and would have been my fave top 4 if mj or carly had gotten syesha’s spot (again s5 w/ the top 4).

Four hours of voting tonight so about 1 hr, 20 mins left. West Coast hasn’t started yet, right?

I just realized that this was my fav top 2 everà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦anyone else feel the same way?

ps. I bet MJ is working real hard on her recap which will ever-so-carefully discredit Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performancesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

I do love this top 2.

That said, leave MJ alone, because its getting hella annoying. You are baiting dude. I know there are a lot of DC fans here and it pisses you off and all, but stop the madness already.

I now await my smackdown from MJ.

Jolene- Not trying to fool anyone…DA will win. Idol’s rep is at stake.

With the right songwriters/producers, DA can make a killer album. And i think he deff needs it more than Cook to succeed. So, since DC has a career in the bag while DA’s career is questionable, why not crown DA the winner in hopes to have 2 big stars in one season? thats what i think is the best case scenario, and honestly i fear for Idol’s future…no really, im fearful. I like Cook and will buy his album no doubt- i just think if the Idol gods are awake this week, DA will win.

east coasters: how many times have u gotten thru via phone (for either contestant)? almost 2hrs in now, and i’ve only gotten thru 5 times. am hoping that is good news tho!
DCFTMFW!!!

Have to come out of lurking to say that DC’s last song was pure love for me. The emotion he put behind that brought tears to MY eyes. I also really liked his first song, and I’m a huge U2 fan (like lots of others), so he had a tall order. The coronation song is what it is, but I sure liked seeing someone rock one out after watching poor Blake last year hop in the middle of the stage and look lost.

I haven’t voted all season, but have watched most of the performances, and DC had me at “word nerd”. To top that off, he has amazing range and power to his voice, and he’s just so very real. So yeah, he gets my votes.

That being said, if Archie wins, good for him. He deserves it. The kid has a wonderful tone to his voice and he fought hard tonight (still couldn’t see myself actually owning one of his albums). But at the end of the night, it was DC that touched me with his last song and to me, he took the risks tonight.

Sally – where are you? Voting ends at 1:00 a.m. ET

My GoPhone is cookin’ hot (said it on purpose). I’ve been two fisted voting for almost 3 hours. 300 texts and 200 phone. My heart will be broken if DC doesn’t win.

I’m voting for all of the weeks he was the best!! Back to it.

Judy,
Thanks for the Paula quote:
To DC, “You’re standing in your truth.”
I teared up at that one.
Go Cookie!!!!

Jolene,
Thanks for pointing out the obvious to D-ster.

Dialidol says,
DC 46.79
DA 35.55

Time remaining to vote from AZ: 3 hours, 15 minutes.

Back to the phones for DC!!!

Musical taste is so subjective. For me, Jason Castro is the best musical performer of season 7. AI is a so-called reality show, but Jason and Cookie are actual real world musicians, not children who have been programmed their entire adolescence to win a music contest.

How do you define “real world musician”? That’s easy. Just look at your own collection of vinyl, CDs, MP3s, etc. Which genres dominate your collection? Do you own more adult contemporary or rock? How many Wayne Newton albums do you own? Celine Dion? Josh Groban? Il Divo?

Do you own any Rolling Stones? Springsteen? Nirvana? Pearl Jam? Who’s a better singer, Kurt Cobain or Mariah Carey? Kurt’s singing breaks my heart while Mariah leaves me cold.

I have my share of classical, Streisand, Sinatra, Lou Rawls. I think Fred Astaire was one of the most underrated vocalists of the 20th century. But I’m a rock’n'roll baby raised on imperfect voices and self-taught instrumentals. That’s the world where I live.

Almost 3 hours in and DC’s lines busy busy busy. Da’s nope.

Cook won the whole season, and two of tonights. So we are voting like mad for him after they tossed him under the wheels.

I’ve been voting the last hour for Cook on 05 and only just now getting through. I’d say I’ve got in 20 votes in 100 tries.

Looks like I’ve got a long night ahead of me…

Hour 15 left to go on the east coast, and the west coast begins voting in 15 minutes.

Do not pay any mind to zabasearch, they have no real sources, they are probably just going by what the show was trying to sell. It’s up to us and our votes, and I won’t give up untill it’s done.

I’m in the South East and I am getting through everytime on 03. I’m not taking it as bad news though since my area isn’t really invested in idol this year. To be honest this is the first time I voted in 2 years.

You all have no idea of the number of Cook fans out there that don’t post anywhere and are right this minute voting like crazy. Some I’ve personally recruited!!!

DCFTW!!!!!!!!!

I’m getting through A LOT for David Archuleta. So his fans should be voting instead of blogging.

cooktard- ruben/clay is a close second for me…real close…ditto the top 12 thing…and it would have been carly swapped for syesha for me…MJ would have been 5th, brooke 6th…

If you are having trouble getting through the phone lines, try a different number. I’m getting through on 03 and 05, about once every 3rd phone call try.
With multiple busy signals, I change numbers and normally get through.
Good Luck!

DCFTW!!!!!!!!!

I wonder if this is how my grandmother felt about Elvis?

Where is DC from? I know DA is from Utah. Just wondering if there will be a later timezone pull for either one.

OH and btw…. Why did Simon wink at DC after his last song? If he was trying to stir up a hornet’s nest with his comments, he succeeded.

Well…..I should start by saying that my fave has NEVER won EVER. Every year on finale night my hubby asks why I still watch this show. HA!! And while I’ve far less obsessed with AI this season than any other, I have to say that David Cook has been right up there with Elliott as my favorite all time AI contenders (but Elliott still reigns as my all time fave!!!) I don’t get the crazy pimping of DA all season – while I can totally appreciate his pretty voice – I just don’t see him as a superstar. All season we’ve made the joke of “puppies and rainbows” everytime he’s on stage…..tonight we were even joking that Archie was all choked up because his dad would put him on restriction for evah if he didn’t win. Kinda sad when I think too much about that possibility….

I’m in the camp that believes AI needs a superstar to win or they’re dead. D.E.A.D.

It was definitely funny to me that when they showed the superstar montage it included Kelly, Carrie and Daughtry who DID NOT WIN.

So it probably doesn’t really matter if DC wins or not, but after voting like mad for the likes of Elliott and Bo over the years, I really would love to see my fave under the confetti just once…..

Back to vote for DC. The first night I’ve really voted all season. It really is funny when I think of it – every year I’m obsessed. I watch and rewatch every show. I love MJ’s blog and it may be even more entertaining than the actual show for me. I’m the go-to person for all my friends’ AI needs. We to to the tour every year and act like crazy teenagers. And yet every year I click off the finale with a disgusted huff. Funny, huh? Maybe this is the year it all changes and the bus throwing was really reverse psychology??? Time will tell and one can hope.

In the last round, what was with Simon starting his critique of the Collective Soul song with his comments that David Cook was genuinely a nice guy. Huh? Wasn’t this the same guy who called him smug and arrogant a handful of weeks ago? Was this his version of – sorry, you’re a nice guy but someone’s getting hung out to dry tonight and its going to be you.

Honestly, I don’t think I’d have been as irritated if not for the judges. I’m a Cook fan but I’ll admit that for today’s show, Archie was better. And that doesn’t take anything away from Cook because I don’t think he put on bad performances at all. And that’s why the judges annoyed me, I found their over-the-top praise for Archie (or rather Randy’s and Simon’s) to be unnecessary.

Oh, and somone PLEASE fire Randy. He’s been impossible this season…

If people dont want American Idol to lose all of its credibility as a SINGING COMPETITION where people are judged on SINGING ability, then they would pray to God that Archie wins.

I hope for Cookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s sake that he doesnt win because of the backlash that will follow. I like em both, but I pray, SIMPILY FOR THE STAKE OF THE DECLINING AMERICAN IDOL, that DA wins because he deserves it.

I think David Cook will help AI gain credibility. He’s a creative musician who knows how to come across well on stage, and sounds great on his recordings.

Most of us voting for Cook are voting because we thought HE DID THE BEST JOB TONIGHT. I’m not basing my vote on saving a show that may have some ratings declined but is still THE MOST POPULAR SHOW in America, and doesn’t need to be saved.

I don’t see any backlash if Cook wins. I do however see a crazed fanbase war on the level of Ruben/Clay. And, I predict a big cd battle – that will probably help them both sell more.

I believe Cook is a credible winner, and I believe he deserves it, and I wish Archie the best in the future (and hope his punishment for losing isn’t too harsh).

We will see how it all pans out tomorrow, but now is our time to give back (pun intended) for all the great moments and music we got from DC all season long.
This season will not be complete without him winning it.

I cannot fathom what came over Simon. He is directly responsible for the DC bus throwing. He was driving that bus in full speed. I can’t wrap my mind around it.

OH and btwà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦. Why did Simon wink at DC after his last song? If he was trying to stir up a hornetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s nest with his comments, he succeeded.

I noticed that, too, Lisa. Those comments on him being such a nice person were interesting, and he sure was watching the effusive reaction of the audience pretty intently during Cook’s last performance.

I’ve been voting for 3 straight hours and my finger is about to fall off. One more hour to endure…

cooktard76
May 20th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
east coasters: how many times have u gotten thru via phone (for either contestant)? almost 2hrs in now, and ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve only gotten thru 5 times. am hoping that is good news tho!
DCFTMFW!!!

I’m in AL, and have gotten through a bunch on 05. I’m on autopilot now. And the more I think about it, the more I want to vote.

WTF – My phone started ringing busy at midnight when I have been getting through all night. I thought we could vote until 1 on the East coast?

nvm – musta been a fluke

I’ve finally gotten a busy signal! The West Coasters must have joined in!

Keep voting, don’t give up or go to bed!

gggrrrrr DC’s phones are busy. I am getting in tons of text tho.

The West Coasters must have joined in!

That makes sense – first busy signals I got all night.

Sally use a knife and pretend the redial button is one of the judges. That is what I am doing. lol

j/k….but close to it lol

“Oh, and somone PLEASE fire Randy. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s been impossible this seasonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦’

I am with you. These judges aleady know what they are going to say before the show even starts. Paula made that obvious when she got ahead of herself and ripped Jason Castro on a song he had not even sung yet!

Ok, I have NOT been paying attention – how long can we vote tonight?? 4 hours?

Neo – me too! I went to line 05 and it’s somewhat less busy! Weird…

DC’s 05 line has definitely gotten busier now that the West Coast has joined us. I am really tired but just an hour to go.

Sumi, yes 4 hours. So 1 am eastern and midnight central.

Sally use a knife and pretend the redial button is one of the judges. That is what I am doing. lol

j/kà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.but close to it lol

I will pretend it’s Randy and I’m botching his gastric bypass surgery.

I’ve been having no trouble getting in on line 1. Going against my no voting rule to throw some love to DC.

I miss getting to hear the contestants thank us for our votes. Wonder why they stopped doing that?

“I believe Cook is a credible winner, and I believe he deserves it, and I wish Archie the best in the future (and hope his punishment for losing isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t too harsh).”

haha if archie doesnt win, i’m calling he winds up floating in the nearest river thurs. morning

My partner even forced me to vote for over and over again for Archuleta since my favorite this season Carly is already out. He blackmailed me to keep redailing for Archuleta in order to get out of walking the dogs tonight.

They must have gotten some complaints about showing Daughtry with “Title Winners”, because someone at the BB said he was pulled from the West Coast feed.

I had the same problem. The lines seemed to close for a minute or two at midnight, then came back

I’m on the East Coast and I’m getting through fine on 01, with only the occasional busy signal. Up until 10 EST I only got through 3 times on any of the three numbers so I’m making up for lost time.

By the way, I sat next to Davidà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s dad during the show. Winters in Alaska exude more warmth. Sorry, but he was a cranky old man (with a trophy wife).

Not to nitpick – because I agree that David’s fugly dad married well above himself, but…. if you have been married to someone long enough to have a 17 year old son with them – you’re officially not a tropy wife – just a good looking woman who looks great after all of the wear and tear a few decades and a few kids can put on you :)

And Duke seriously – I completely disagree that Archie needs to win for AI’s credibility. That’s ludicrous. Also – it’s bad form to insult the blogmistress before she even writes her recap.

Take this as you will. I just checked the previous years’ results from DI. I gather they’ve been around since season 4? That’s how far back the charts went. Anyway, they accurately predicted the winner in seasons 6 and 5. In season 4 they were also “accurate,” in the sense that their tallies were so close between Carrie and Bo that both were listed as possible 1 or 2.
Right now, David Cook is at 45.27 (in the green) and David A is at 33.24 (in the red.)

I have been calling steadily from the midwest and rarely getting in.

Oh, and hello. Now back to dialing.

I miss getting to hear the contestants thank us for our votes. Wonder why they stopped doing that?

cuz Archie’s gaspy voice sounded too much like an obscene phone call?

I’m on the west coast and can’t get in on any of the lines for DC.

so glad that i don’t have to get up for school tommorro, or have a mom who made me go to bed. Nice to be an adult who can text a mile a minute!!!!!

back to texting!!!

neonorange?, did you get an answer? David Cook is from Blue Springs, Missouri, a suburb of KCMO, but he has lived the last 3 (I think) years in Tulsa. Our time zone has about 45 minutes left for voting.

thx spritely

Why isn’t the poster Duke writing his little “gems” over on Rickey’s site? Why is he baiting MJ? He’s a curious one….and boring.

If AI wants to turn over a new leaf and start establishing some real cred in the music world, DC will win.

DA sang in the way that he has

It doesn’t matter who sang best or even who’s the best singer. It’s all about the votes. I think David C would be the better winner for the show because he stands the best chance of having good record sales and radio play. I’m sure they’d love to have another “Daughtry” who actually won.

I want to go on record on how much I hate that arrangement of “Imagine”.

hollygo9- hahahaha that was good. When i actually imagined it i started laughing, if singing doesnt work out, who knows, maybe he will get his own hotline.

Found an interesting recap: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/idol_chatter/19124149.html
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet?

Since the West Coast started voting, acc to DI, DA has gained the tiniest bit of ground on DC. It had been a steady 12 pt difference. Now it’s DC at 45.93 and DA at 34.18 so it’s an 11.75 difference on DI.

Little late here, but I also noticed the wink Simon sent DC’s way after his last song…I mentioned it to my family. None of them care at this point though. Lol..I’m always the only hard core Idol fan left by this time each year.

the west coast feed still showed daughtry for the title winners (not pulled as stated above)

if singing doesnt work out, who knows, maybe he will get his own hotline.

Well, his fans do know their way around a phone line…

Just a cheer-up for our fellow DC fans! If you can still vote, please do.
Watching DC sing on stage tonight is like he’s proposing to me (sorry, it’s getting sappy). He said he loves music and he loves me (as a fan) but take heed, he is what he is. He is this person, genuine, nothing to hide, rocker (i.e. not (always) a romantic cheesy balladier who sings with all sorts of runs). He poured his heart out and told me that he loved the music he was doing and he loved us, the fans that were cheering at him. So, we need to make up our mind: vote for him and this is the package you will receive, nothing more or nothing less. And if you are hesitant (and love those runs and those catching rainbow waving), please say “no” and he would be happier guy if he could be himself.
NOW, I have decided “YES YES YES!!! I WILL LOVE YOU AS A PACKAGE AND EVER!!” (And I will marry you if you ask :-) )
Thanks Cook for giving us a beautiful and heartfelt performance on stage.

I didn’t notice when I watched the show live, but in the clips above I noticed DC’s wearing an orange bracelet/band type thing around his palm. I wonder what (if anything) that represents.

When does Utah kick in? I don’t remember which time zone they are.

ETA, never mind, I just googled it. Mountain. So they’ve already started huh? And Archie hasn’t had a surge on DI yet?

I want to go on record on how much I hate that arrangement of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Imagineà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ .

Ditto. I always thought the point of the song was imagining simplicity with no complications – nothing but love. The stripped down no frills vocals of John Lennon personify this image. Even the video is all white with no extras. I think adding runs kinda kills the song. IMHO.

Duke, the comment about Archie floating in the nearest river was TOTALLY out of line. IMO

I went into tonight objectively, since neither David has been my favorite this year. In my house we thought Archie’s first 2 songs were winners, and Cook’s 3rd song was nice and understated, the best he’s sounded in awhile. I understood what Simon was trying to say, though, about how he’d have rather heard a reprise from Cook. I really wanted a professional recording of “Hello”, since that’s been my favorite performance of Cook’s all season. I don’t think Cook got thrown under a bus. From my living room, Archie was just better tonight, and usually he leaves me cold, so colour-me-pleasantly-surprised. Cook left me cold on his first 2 songs.
I won’t be upset with tomorrow night no matter who wins. I just want to see me some Jason Castro singing a duet with someone amazing!
Jason Castro for the win!

Mountain time zone tinawina. We have an hour and a half of voting to go.

Why isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the poster Duke writing his little à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“gemsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  over on Rickeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s site? Why is he baiting MJ? Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a curious oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.and boring.

Layla – ignore it(not sure male or female?) – I have never been able to figure out who it likes – it just likes whomever someone else dislikes and then gets to baiting I think? Sorry if I am wrong though – Thank you Panz -

Wow, there really was a teleprompter behind the judges scrolling during their songs. I’ve noticed it during group numbers before, but never individual performances.

Do they usually have a teleprompter at the finale? Afraid someone might botch a lyric when it most counts? I’m looking at you, Archie.

“Layla
May 21st, 2008 at 12:18 am
Why isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the poster Duke writing his little à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“gemsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  over on Rickeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s site? Why is he baiting MJ? Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a curious oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.and boring.”

first off- i’m not “baiting”

2nd- i like these boards better, and i’m trying to keep the cook fans honest.

3rd- you’re the one breaking the forum rules, so u might want to watch it. i’m entitled to my opinion. think its boring? than dont read it

East-coasters, only 30 minutes left to go! Don’t quit and don’t give up – We can do it!
West-coasters, vote for DC! He could win this, it is up to us to reward him for his brilliance all season long. Do not give up on him, and do not give up on his fanbase. We can make it a reality.

Utah has already kicked in. They are Mountain time zone which is my time zone. Perhaps that is why I could get through all night for Cook?

I want to go on record on how much I hate that arrangement of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Imagineà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ .

Ditto. I always thought the point of the song was imagining simplicity with no complications – nothing but love. The stripped down no frills vocals of John Lennon personify this image. Even the video is all white with no extras. I think adding runs kinda kills the song. IMHO.

You know, I didn’t hate it the 1st time. But tonight I started to feel like you both. It was too much. I mean, he sang it very well, but I was wishing he would just stop it already. It’s not a damn gospel song. Ugh.

I’m thinking less a brat and more an a**hole

I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t notice when I watched the show live, but in the clips above I noticed DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s wearing an orange bracelet/band type thing around his palm. I wonder what (if anything) that represents.

It was given to him at the top 12 party by the father of a 7 year old fan who is battling leukemia.

I’m not asking this to be mean or anything, but is Archie actually going down since his time zone kicked in? On DI, it says

DC 45.99
DA 34.34

Always Elliot– same here w/ my fave never winning (sort of). I started watching during s2, loved clay from the get go; no win. skipped s3 for whatever reason, tho i liked latoya from the times i did tune in (never voted tho). s4 i liked constantine (shut up) but in the finale voted for bo. s5 liked taylor, chris, and elliot (shoulda been the top 3) but did vote for taylor over kat so i guess i got one. and even tho i was not that interested last season (total bore) i threw some votes to blake (i do like jordan tho). so yeah, to see my fave (from the beginning) actually win, would be nice. =)

If DC isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t doing well ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s because he chooses to not win. Every other week with the exception of 1 or 2 he has killed. I think he doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t want to be tied to AI.

I’ve been considering the above comment, because that has struck me too. Sorry, kids, but Archie turned on the juice tonight. I was for Cookie all the way, but the little guy did a real carpe deum. And after some musing, here’s what I think was going down:

1. Cook was playing along with the Idol BS, as one has to, all season – yet never compromised on his arrangements, and choose songs he alone could make surprisingly ultra-cool.

2. But given No. 1, I can’t imagine he wasn’t deeply ambivalent about the whole gig in some way. Here’s an indy guy to the bone, a kid who loves his Les Paul, his edgy semi-obscure band favorites, who was happy tending bar and doing his thing, who never expected to be there making Ford commercials or actively sought it — one of his strengths, really, since those who seemed the most eager to succeed on Idol (like Carly!) reek of desperation.

3. I can’t imagine he deliberately threw the contest. No way, he’s too much of a straight shooter. But his ambivalence showed in the song choices he made tongiht and even in his arrangements. For me, actually, his best number was the U2 song which he sang with passion and some dramatic arc.

4. Cook is really the artist here, the seeker, the experimenter, the guy who is going to make the most hip records and have the most interesting career. But there’s a somewhat perverse streak of rebellion in there that has cost him. What does it mean that his best choices all season were on very melodic songs by people like Dolly Parton, Lionel Ritchie, Mariah Carey?

It means, to me, he’s an amazingly creative interpreter of lyrical, catchy mainstream material but not always the best judge of other stuff. Sorry, but especially the final tune was, like “Hungry Llike a Wolf,” a terrible mismatch for the final 2-minute shot at the crown. It would be great to hear it in the middle of a David Cook concert (one I hope to attend!), but for a guy this smart to back away from a big boffo finale???
Look what he did with “Music of the Night”! And just last week he crushed that Aerosmith tune! Some defiant vibe kicked in tonight, and I guarantee you he was being advised by the musical staff of Idol NOT to do “The World I Live In,” because it just didn’t carry any punch.

5. I don’t think he consciously threw the contest to Archie, because he sang well, but I think he’s going to be relieved to come in No. 2.
He must know the differences between winning the whole enchilada and coming close. One, I hope, will be the artistic freedom he’ll wield in the recording studio. Another is not having the burden of all the absurd commercial expectations and other crap the Idol winner has to shoulder.

I do hope, though, that when his solo career gets in gear he’ll remember what people loved about him on the show. (Like Taylor DID NOT.) Does he have to record my Idol and youtube favorites — like “There Goes My Hero” or “Billie Jean” or “Always Be My Baby”? No. But if he can wrap his mind and heart around the idea of meshing his wonderful voice and musical savvy with great music old and new, melodic and edgy, he’ll be a star of wide appeal but without selling out.

DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s wearing an orange bracelet/band type thing around his palm. I wonder what (if anything) that represents.

When the Tampa Fox reporter was interviewing the top 24 he gave David C the orange band. His 7 year old daughter has leukemia and she absolutely loves David C. Afaik, David C has been wearing it ever since. Her father said she was beaming when she first saw David wear it on the show.

The band has “Do Watcha Gotta Do” printed on one side and “Lindsey Rose” on the other.

Only 25 more minutes. Cookie’s gonna have to give me a finger massage.

No Rebecamia, I actually think the DI margin is narrowing slightly now.

Thanks, holly, I didn’t know that’s where the orange wristband came from.

Dial Idol
Cook 45.99
Archie 34.34

I’m new at this, so someone tell me is this correct? Is Cook ahead but this much? Did I get the right info?

Please le the gods allow for a true artis yeah…I’m talkin’ about DC…win this year! We had the 17 year old thing last year…let it be a win that could possibly revitalize AI.

No Rebecamia, I actually think the DI margin is narrowing slightly now

Thanks. I just started watching it again, and couldn’t remember previous numbers. :D

lastminute? Thank you so much for that link. It made me feel better.

I heard DC’s last song on the radio. I had to miss the live show, so on my drive home I turned on our local station that loves Cook. They played TWIK. I knew nothing about how the show had gone. All I knew was that the song I heard was so beautiful it actually hurt my heart and brought tears to my eyes.

I’m still dialing for the gold, because as he sings in “Silver,” the silver has never taken him home.

colette, I haven’t read your entire post because I’m too busy dialing my fingers off, but I get what you’re saying, and my reply is:
DC is already tied to 19E. Coming in 2nd will not change it or allow any benefits. It will only mean less promotion and later album release. He wants to win it. He needs to win it.
He WAS thrown under the bus tonight by Simon. Given different comments, his performances could very well be percieved as moments (at least 1 and 3).
I’m voting for him because of what he did all season AND tonight.
DCFTMFW!

ziggy– i might not have school, but i gotta be up at 5:30 for work, lol. tomorrow is gonna be a loooong day! oh well, hope its not for nothing!
DCFTMFW!!!

Sorry dont have time to read whole comments till tomorrow.
Felt the show was set up/push for DA. like them both (but think DC should win and fan of his). No offense against DA but neither one did any incredible performance. Both were good, not great. So it’s weird how they went nuts over one of them.
Also objected to the Daughtry insertion as winner thing. I live on west coast so yes it was there.

The second song of Cook’s was actually quite good. The poorly sung sap of Archie’s second song that got raves was shocking.

I could understand someone “winning” the night if this was a one-time hour long singing competition–but it isn’t. Fans have been watching for 2-3 months and have developed their favorite performer(s). I don’t see why anyone would think you’d abandon your personal favorite just because the other contender has a better night and Simon has proclaimed the winner.

Sure, I agree, Archie probably had the best performances of his life tonight, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to start voting for DA. I guess the true “casual” voters will throw a few votes Archie’s way based on his performance tonight, but the crowning of Archie as the Idol by the judges was a bit off-putting.

To be honest, I think a lot of the true casual fans, the ones that only vote on Finale night, cast one vote. I don’t think they realize they can vote more than once. LOL

Did anyone else pick up on Randy’s comment (after he performed the Collective Soul song) that that was the type of album DC could put out and “get by with”? What the heck is that all about? “get by”? That’s insulting.

cooktard, I have to be up for work tommorrow too, LOL!!!

I don’t care, I’d stay here all night and vote if I could.

Anything for our Cook Man!!!

West Coast bring the win home baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MrRJ
May 21st, 2008 at 12:44 am
The second song of Cookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s was actually quite good. The poorly sung sap of Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s second song that got raves was shocking.

Yessiree. All three of his were quite good.

Do you think the over the top, blatant, obnoxious pimp job by the judges for DA has fired up David Cook fans? You bet it did. We the people will vote til the end to give DC justice.

Dial Idol:

DC 45.62
DA 33.86

lastminute,

loved that recap….it was right on…but I’m still hoping for the win!

miss getting to hear the contestants thank us for our votes. Wonder why they stopped doing that?

Maybe cause all you would get on DA’s is….

hehehee….giggle giggle gasp….giggle …. Gosh…giggle giggle gasp

Still voting like mad here in Utah for DC. The lines have really opened up now.

gumby, I sure do hope that’s the case.
When I finished watching the show I was gutted by the comments DC got and by the bus throwing.
But if we manage to get him to victory after this – think about how much sweeter that victory would be?

7 more minutes, East time. West time – do your best for our boy!

oh, I envy you guys who can still vote now. My final 2 hours of showing my love and support for David Cook on AI (by voting, making international calls from Hong Kong, btw) is officially over. I so wanted to vote again but it gave me busy signals.
So, next, I will buy his CD when it’s released. But when????!!! How can I survive without Cookie for so long? I’ve been feeding on Cookies for weeks now.

taran33,

I’m still voting too!

Glad everyone liked the recap. I still think it’s important to keep voting though. i’d love it if we could prove the judges wrong!

Gosh, “The World I Know” was SO FREAKING GOOD! WTH, Simon?

Wow, am I reading this right, WY didn’t vote at all and DC got no votes at all in SD? Hell, he even got some votes in Utah but not SD.

http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/GeoPredictions.asp

I’ve never had such a problem getting through for a contestant for four effing hours. Good luck Cookie! You were the best tonight for me.

3 new songs…three different styles…played 2 types of guitars, actually used the judges stand and sang from the bottom of his heart…..
This is the guy who should win.

Gosh, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The World I Knowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  was SO FREAKING GOOD! WTH, Simon?

Simon was too distracted by the revving of the engine of the bus he was driving all over DC to pay attention.
And…. East coast is out.
West coast – counting on you!!! DCFTMFW!

I’m still voting using Gizmo power-vote. 3 more hours for me too.

I did my part and voted for 4 straight hours. Now I have to cross my fingers that Cookie wins and my efforts were not in vain.

OK, the lines have officially closed on the East Coast so I can finally try to get some sleep, work comes too early in the morning. I hope my numb fingers have not suffered in vain.

Midwest and West Coast DC fans, do your worst! His fate is now totally in your hands :)

Night all.

My time zone just ended.
David Cook, I’m so freakin’ proud of you. You played to win, had some fun, cheesed it up and never surrendered your identity or integrity.
I can’t wait to buy your next CD.

Dial Idol has called the winner correctly in all six seasons, or so they tout on their home page. A lot of different parties have credibility riding on tomorrow’s results….judges, producers, Dial Idol….it should be interesting.

Dial Idol has DC’s 3 phone lines ALL busier than DA’s.

Please let it be true. I and my hands and fingers are exhausted.

DCFTGDMFW

My gawd I just voted for four straight hours and I’m going to bed. I feel sick to my stomach tho’.

Good luck Cookie!

hollygo9
May 21st, 2008 at 1:01 am
My time zone just ended.
David Cook, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m so freakinà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ proud of you. You played to win, had some fun, cheesed it up and never surrendered your identity or integrity.
I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t wait to buy your next CD.

Me too. :)

I was okay with either David winning and didn’t plan to vote. That plan got scrapped when the judges turned up their pimpometers to an ultra annoying level. My unlimited text package came in very handy tonight.

Hello, everybody.
Just got done putting in my 4 hours of voting for Cookie.
Yo, yo, yo, dawgs, listen up.
Zabasearch has changed.
It says that Cook is leading Arche(puke)a as of midnight.
He is also leading on DialIdol.
West, Mountain and Central time zones: I beg of you, for the future of Cookie’s career (and the medical treatment he will be able to afford his brother), don’t stop now!!!!!!!!
I have done all I can. Keep it up for me and Please, please, please bring this home for our boy. I will be damned straight to hell if I will let them roll over him with that damn bus.

My hands arent tired, i wish i could vote more . :annoyed_tb:

Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all the kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on.
I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in new york city
And I dont know why.

Are we listening to hyms of offering?
Have we eyes to see that love is gathering?
All the words that Ive been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding into one.

So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below.
And I laugh at myself
As the years roll down.
cause its the world I know.
Its the world I know.

David Cook that took &@(($ the size of planets.

David Cook you have taken me on one heckva thrill ride this season. You have made me cry and you have made me stand up and cheer.

You are able to reach out and grab us and make us FEEL what you are feeling when you sing these songs.

You are magic, absolute magic.

It’s all over for the hometown folks…this “older” fan texted her heart out for four solid hours. No matter how it all shakes out, David Cook is the winner in my book!

DCFTMFW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know MJ doesn’t like us to get all fangirly but didn’t DC look absolutely gorgeous tonight? He really did…love the facial hair on him.

o…..m…..g!!!!!!
u guys wont even believe this! :::bangs head repeatedly against keyboard:::
right after the show i started voting (east coast) on my cell. i got thru MAYBE 7 times! finally about 12:55 the cell goes dead. so i grab the landline. I GOT THRU EVERY F*CKING TIME!!! so if i had only done that to begin w/, i could have gotten in ALOT more votes. i got in more on my landline in those last 5 minutes, than i got on the cell in the first 3 hours 45mins! i am so super pissed! i had no idea it made a diff what u called from, but apparently in NC it did, ugh!!!!!!

I wonder how DC’s blood pressure was tonight…

AINoob, that’s how I read it, too. Weird. Doesn’t matter, though, if you’re a DC fan, as I am. That’s the “loser” map, where all those pink states are states DA is losing. It unnerved me the first time I saw it, because I didn’t realize that. Then I went to the wee menu, changed it to “winner” and saw that the USA had suddenly turned almost completely David Cook Maroon. :)

David Cook should have been a star before Idol…HE IS THE REAL DEAL!! David A…aka Archie has a great voice but I would not want to listen to the same song on every track of his CD. David C. changed it up and made every song his own :) Bottom line..I can’t wait to buy David Cooks CD. He made me want to listen to him each time.

I officially think that Simon has no taste after tonight. I can’t believe he said that David A. “knocked” David C out….WHATEVER!!! David C killed it all season. There has never been a better Idol contestant than Cook.

I understand the rallying cries. Cook is, as I said earlier, my huge favorite and the only real artist here in every way.

But am I the only one who saw in his performances tonight a guy who actually did not want to win this? And probably for some very good reasons?

Has the voting ended in the West Coast as well?

David Cook wins on DialIdol and ZabaSearch dialIdol Correctly predicted the idol for the past six seasons.

If voting is still on vote vote vote!

Here’s another good recap this one by EW. Hope that’s ok to post here?
Archie actually gives a lot of credit to Cooks performance. Gotta love the kid even if I’m not voting for him.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/idol_chatter/19124149.html

Tbank you poppyfunk for the lyrics. Now, I get to know what the song is about. And now I know why our David was crying. I was crying when reading the lyrics (The youtube quality was not good and I was too excited to really listen to what he sang).

So, this is what you meant and this is why you sang to us. …….(speechless and sobbing).

CookieMonster… I’m on the west coast and we still have about 2 hours and 45 minutes left to vote

Off to continue voting on two phones for Cook!! :)

DCFTW!!!

Terrie
May 20th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Musical taste is so subjective. For me, Jason Castro is the best musical performer of season 7. AI is a so-called reality show, but Jason and Cookie are actual real world musicians, not children who have been programmed their entire adolescence to win a music contest.

How do you define à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“real world musicianà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ? Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s easy. Just look at your own collection of vinyl, CDs, MP3s, etc. Which genres dominate your collection? Do you own more adult contemporary or rock? How many Wayne Newton albums do you own? Celine Dion? Josh Groban? Il Divo?

Do you own any Rolling Stones? Springsteen? Nirvana? Pearl Jam? Whoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a better singer, Kurt Cobain or Mariah Carey? Kurtà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s singing breaks my heart while Mariah leaves me cold.

I have my share of classical, Streisand, Sinatra, Lou Rawls. I think Fred Astaire was one of the most underrated vocalists of the 20th century. But Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a rockà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢n’roll baby raised on imperfect voices and self-taught instrumentals. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the world where I live.

Terrie – LOVE LOVE LOVE it. You nailed my feelings precisely. Can’t wait to be buying me some more Jason Castro artistry for my iPOD.

Well, I just texted for four hours straight, and got in over 2,000 votes (along with a few phone votes with the hopes that they’d have Cook’s voice recorded in stead of that danged MovieFone guy…)

I, too, feel sick to my stomach at the way DC was thrown to the lions by Simon. Hopefully the voting really does matter, and it will be DCFTMFW as we had claimed all along.

Time to start trawling the web for glimmers of hope.

Thanks, MJ, for keeping us plugged into the pulse of AI.

After tomorrow night, I can go back to my single-minded obsession of the Red Sox. Hee.

I will happily buy David Cook’s cd. I want it as soon as possible.

Just keep voting you all!

A de-lurker here….

I’ve never voted before this season and here I am power voting for Cook. I’m finally getting through with some regularity (like 1 in every 10 calls) after the East Coast lines closed.

I was so upset with the judging that even my extremely anti-AI husband will help vote too.

If DC can pull this out, there can be no (or maybe less) “sour graping” from Archie fans/camp. He had the pimp spot, positive judging, and a producer song in his wheelhouse. Personally, I think Archie sang very well, but I don’t agree it was a knock out punch. My voting choice is for the best for the entire season and that’s DC.

dial idol
cook 44.93
Arch 32.79

um.. east coaster here… its 1:17 … i should be in bed… i voted for 4 hours straight… i’m not tired… what am i supposed to do now? =)

I voted for 4 straight hours…my mom voted…my daughter…my sister…all for Cookie!

I don’t think I can watch tomorrow night, I’ll just wait for the results online or something. I can’t take it!

*sigh* Okay, I’ll probably watch…

I was ticked off at the throwing of DC under that old bus. Ticked but not surprised. Still, I couldn’t help but think that there was a method to Simon’s madness. Maybe I’m giving him far too much credit. Heh.

West coasters, are you here?
Please let us know you’re voting hard for DC. We can carry it home for him!

Please do your best. He IS in it to win it, he is also a true artist and he remaind loyal to himself. That should be rewarded, not punished.

We are the ones who can reward him, by voting.

Collete, I didn’t see it that way at all. As I mentioned above, the first song I heard was TWIK, played on the radio after the show was over. And what I heard was beauty and heart and pain and passion. It’s the first time this season that he has sung me to tears, though god knows he has made me feel practically Every Other Emotion Known to Woman. Then I came home and watched him and all I saw was a consumate performer giving it everything he had. I thought DA did that, too. I just happen to prefer the “everything” that DC has. :) Our mileage obviously varies, but that was my take on it. He Gave Back.

I had noticied, being a Jason fan, that once the West
Coast started voting, things really kicked in for Jason and a whole lot of us Jason fans split votes with Cook until, maybe, the final couple of shows that Jason was on. I betcha us old Jason fans will help give Cook the final shove he needs to win this thing. Just my small opinion and just sayin

AInoob, you need to go the flipdown and choose *predicted winner*. Right now you have it on *predicted loser*.

This is the link for the *predicted winner*.

http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/GeoPredictions.asp?season=7&week=2&sort=Winning

David Cook is the one who has covered the map.
When you click on GeoPredictions it always defaults to *Predicted Loser*. You have to change the flipdown to read *Predicted Winner*.

ooh, how smart am i? i have a close friend that lives in chicago. she hates ai and in her words would rather “jab sharp objects into her eyes” rather than watch, but i pleaded w/ her (since she still has lines open for another 37mins) to call for me, b/c what are friends for? =)

West Coaster here!!

I have two phones going, plus I recruited co-workers and all of my family to vote for DC tonight. We can do this! :)

Well, I’m not west coast but Mountain and they are still letting me vote. If anyone out there is having trouble getting through try a land line, that seems to be working just fine.
Guess I have a half hour more to vote so here goes.

David Cook’s dial idol lead is diminishing, vote vote vote west coast!

I cried again reading this. He has to win. It’ll break my heart if he doesn’t.
Taken from the Kansas City Star:

Cookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s response: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“This show is about progressing. Why should I do something Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve already done?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

After that, the show paused for a commercial. Cook shed his guitar and microphone, then started to exit when a stage hand motioned him to his mother, Beth Foraker, who had approached the stage. He went to where she was standing, buried his face in her shoulder, and they embraced.

DC is still ahead by 12 on DI, but VOTE VOTE VOTE Westies anyways!!!!

“My gawd I just voted for four straight hours and Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m going to bed. I feel sick to my stomach thoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢.

Good luck Cookie!”

Awesome!!!!!!!!!

Awww! Thank you for posting that, Jolene! I agree. It will break my heart if he doesn’t win tomorrow night.

Thanks jolene for sharing….. aawwww…. That was SOOOO touching.

I can’t believe i voted for four hours. Never have done that before. I voted while on my treadmill, doing dishes, sweeping up the floor. Cookie moved me tonight. That last song was beautiful and he got no credit for it. The judges being so scripted pushed the wrong buttons with me tonight. I cannot believe the blatant unfairness of it. Archie has a beautiful voice but cookie makes magic. I hope dial idol is on the mark tonight because cookie was wonderful even with the push under the bus.

Dialidol
DC 44.7
DA 32.51

DC is gaining slightly, but holdin a strong 12 point lead.
90% of the Gambling websites showed he was favored today also.
Still, I am voting loud and strong for Cookie.
With less than an hour and 30 minutes left to vote, I decided to time my votes to see how effective I was getting through the phone lines.
6 votes per minute on the landline, 10 votes per minute on the cell phone.

Still sending the love to Cookie!

Hi all you Dc fans, I’m on the East coast and did my thing for 4 hours, too hyped to go to bed yet! Please all you central and west time zones keep up the fight. I can’t believe how David got totally thrown under the bus tonight. Smells a little fishy to me. I listened to DC’s songs about 5 times over again and each time I loved them more. I cried when he cried!! He has such integrity and passion, and is so true to himself I hope he is rewarded for that. Please keep voting those of you who can!!!! DCFTW

Oh, god, Jolene, you just broke my heart with that KC Star story about him burying his face in his mom’s shoulder. But my heart will heal if you West Coasters out there keep up your excellent work!

Could the Davids be any sweeter about each other than they are in that EW article from after the show? DA is actually saying everything we Cook fans are, that Cook was amazing and really in touch with his songs, and that he doesn’t know what Simon’s problem was, and that it’s just one man’s opinion. DA is a sweetie-pie.

jolene, can you give us the link to the star article? I’d love to read that.

From EW, David Cook speaks (and seems to confirm my point):

And what about tonight? Did you think you were going to win tonight?

Well, I think you go into tonight kinda seeing the forest for the trees, but winning’s never been what’s driven me about this competition. For me it’s just been getting to do something I love for a large audience, which is a trip.

DC saying that he was just glad to do something he loves for a large audience is probably true. I would not go so far as to say that means he doesn’t want to win. Perhaps he is pre-shielding himself for the blow that he anticipates tomorrow after tonight’s bus accident.
If I didn’t live in the East I would still be voting. Please, everyone, don’t stop.

ok this is my last comment of the nite, then i must make myself go to bed, as i wont be worth 2 shits tomorrow at work. these are my last words regarding the finale and season in general…

1) archie may have (in some ppl’s eyes) won the nite, but come on, cookie won the season, and isnt that what really matters and what should count when voting in the finale?
2) archie’s DLTSGDOM will never, i repeat NEVER compare to clay’s.
3) after TWIK, when cookie cried, i think the world cried (or at least the ppl in my livingroom).
4) i never have to hear randy say “dawg u could sing the phone book” ever again.. or at least til next season.
5) if anyone has a pic of jason yawning, please post it, i musta blinked!

thank u, good nite.. and for the last time…
DCFTMFW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our mileage is varying agian, colette. :) I can definitely see how you can read it that way, but I see it as him cushioning the blow after getting creamed, and coming up with a face-saving device. I hope he even believes it, even if I don’t, lol. I do believe what he says about getting to do what he loves, but everything I’ve ever read about him (which is an embarrassing lot) suggests he’s competitive as hell.

colette, please stop trying to convince people he doesn’t want to win. It’s only natural that he would downplay it now that he feels defeated. Please – He wants to win, he said so emphatically over and over again. We won’t give up on him, and he WILL win!!!

Sharing a brain, sherryw.

Kansas City article – the part about his mom is on the second page
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/629134.html

dial idol
cook 44.07
arch 31.85

keep voting west coast! they are cutting me off in a minute.

-round 1-
David Cook sings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I Still Havenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t Found What Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m Looking Forà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ -loved it

David Archuleta sings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t Let The Sun Go Down on Meà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 
-loved it

-round 2-( :sick_ee: gooey crap all around)
David Cook sings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Dream Bigà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ -not bad,did the best he could with that crap of a song.

David Archuleta sings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“In This Momentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ -not bad

-round 3-
David Cook sings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The World I Know”-pretty good
David Archuela reprises à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Imagineà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  -As good as the first time.

:furious_tb: That was sick the overpraising of Archie,the kid is a good singer but Cookie did just as good tonight.
Thats totally unfair they would throw Cookie under a bus like that frickin b!@#$%^&*!I totally loved Cookie tonight he defiantly gave it one hell of a try and he passed with flying colors.I voted the whole time just for him. :wub_tb:

I rarely post, especially when so many others have said so well what I feel, but tonight it seems important to add my name to the list.

Tonight came off as such an obviously, heavily-scripted sucker punch. After Round 1 comments (especially Simon’s unnecessarily overt declarations), it was clear DC knew he’d been thrown under the bus, and DA knew he was TCO. DA’s confidence soared, and DC soldiered on like the professional gentleman he is.

It was Jason and others, all over again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I didn’t see it coming, though in hindsight it’s obvious. Paula-gate proved there was a man behind the curtain. They weren’t about to go into the biggest night of the season on live TV and not have a scripted game plan.

Thing is, one thing Cookie deserved is respect, especially after working his tail off this season and raising the AI bar like never before. Instead he was turned into a punchline for a reality show, and he didn’t deserve that.

Simon was wrong – the only knockout punch tonight was delivered by TPTB. More like a kidney punch.

What ticks me off? So now I’ll buy everything DC puts out – and part of every dollar I spend will go to 19E. (as part of my votes tonight pad the pockets of TPTB)

MJ – thanks for your hard work and the great site.

It seems my voting is closed on Gizmo as well.
Never mind – I’m here until the very end. If I can’t vote myself, I’ll stay with those who can in spirit.
Two more hours to go, west coasters. Let’s get the winner right this year, let’s get the happy ending. I’m crying as I write this, seriously… What have you done to me, David Cook?

It is very very clear, Randy needs to be hit with that phone book he wants people to sing and kicked of the judges table. Bring me Dicko

I’m still getting busy signals with a little less than 2 hours to go here in Oregon!

Jolene Jolene Jolene, I feel your emotion. DC is the brother I was never fortunate enough to have.

I agree he is “cushioning the blow” with his comment about not caring about winning. I mean this is the guy that thought his “ticket was punched” on Top 3 night, because he thought Syesha was going to clobber him. I really, really, believe he thinks Archie will win. I think he is really awed by Archie’s vocal prowess.

And to all those Cookie fans still awake at this hour, I’m on the West Coast still trying to get my calls through!! I just made two calls in a row, with no busy signal in between. That’s a first.

And ann11, I love your “rinse, lather, repeat” comment. LOL

OK, mission accomplished for the Mountain Time Zone!! While I think David Archuleta did a nice job tonight….I have a feeling that Simon was really just trying to push Cook fans to vote even harder. Last night on the Tonight Show and today on Ellen he said he thinks DC should win. DC was leading all polls today. And without a doubt, DC will sell more records and much much faster than DA. He’s ready NOW. I know the judges BS tonight ticked me off so I was definitely less complacent and voted HARD. It was not a KO — I think Simon knew what he was up to. Thanks David Cook for a great season.

Keep voting West Coast people. You have until 1:00 am to bring David Cook to the promised land.

Show those judges who’s calling the shots. Randy is such a tool. How did that CD do he put out? I hear they are being handed out for frisbee tosses.

The review at TVGuide.com has some great things to say about Cook, and he is leading in their “now that you’ve seen the two Davids” poll!

Review

Blog with poll

Sorry if this has already been posted! :)

AnalogGirl, I’m hoping beyond hope you are correct, but I truly do think Archie has once again proven that TPTB don’t change TCOs midstraem.
However, that’s exactly why I’m praying the public speaks up and Cook gets a victory he has already given up on.

We won’t give up.

Hour and a half untill the voting ends, zabasearch changed its tune to say DC has a slight lead.
Keep voting, westerners. It’s up to you to make that slight lead into a WIN.

Dial Idol has David Cook winning 43.49% to David A’s 31.35%. Here’s hoping that holds! I so hope David C. wins…fate brought him to the competition…his talent should let him win.

I voted for 4 hours for David C. and only got through once. I tried all 3 lines. Hope that’s a good sign!

Why should David Cook win American Idol?
Well, let me supply a list:
1.) He actually had to give a real audition; was not hand picked 6 years ago
2.) He stayed true to himself throughout the competition and was very good tonight; he simply didn’t feel the need to do a repeat performance or sing three saccharine ballads.
3.) He has kicked Archie’s a** virtually every night since the top 10, possibly top 16.
4.) He has the potential to be a top selling artist, not another “Where Are They Now?” winner.
5.) The blatant bus accident tonight was enough to make me sick.

Why should David Archuleta NOT win American Idol?
Well, let me supply a list:
1.) He sings the same song over and over again. I prefer Clay’s DLTSGDOM to his any day of the week. I personally find his version of Imagine to be disrespectful to one of the creative geniuses of our time, John Lennon. He probably doesn’t even know who Lennon was. (Heee, heee,um, a Russian?)
2.) IMO, he would be an awful representative of the American Idol title. He has zero personality (it is hard to fathom that he is the same age as Jordin was last year; she seems so much older).
3.) He received tongue baths all season when they were not deserved.
4.) He has absolutely no definitive sound outside of BORING. How will he possibly make hit songs and sell albums?
5.) The winner should be the best of the season, not someone’s opinion of the winner of one night. If one night decided the competition, he should have been sent home several times:
Top 12 flubbed the lyrics on We Can Work It Out – it was never mentioned
Top 10 sang some awful song that sounded like it came from a hotel elevator
Top 6 flubbed the lyrics on Think Of Me – it was never mentioned
Top 5 sounded awful on both songs and pulled the “America” card
Top 4 added lyrics to a song without permission and cost the show money – for many, I am sure that would have been grounds for dismissal, but not Archie
Top 3 flubbed the lyrics on With You and looked and sounded awful
Tonight repeated a song, for which both Melinda and Jordin were called lazy during last year’s top 3

If I were voting based on who the judges gave a tongue bath and who sang the same song the same way every night this season (when he remembered the words), my votes would have gone to DA.
However, my votes are based on the entire season (including tonight), and for that, DC wins hands down.

Please, West Coasters, keep it up!
And, don’t forget to text! Do it for the man who made this entire season endurable and is sure to give us some awesome music in the future.

I have to disagree with Simon tonight. I think tonight showed us who will be the better artist in the long runà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦We know that David C. is contemporary and will produce songs that will have a wider audience appeal. David C. has sustainability in the music industryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m afraid that David A. will be a one-hit CD artist and will get lost in this businessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦This entire season David A. has managed to get through almost every week without singing anything contemporary (he tried once but that didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t go over so well)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and he never really made any of the songs he sang sound contemporary. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m afraid that David A. will go the way of Taylor Hicks because he is so one dimensionalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and that would be a shame because David A. has real talentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦I just think he needs to wait a year or two to gain some maturity and be able to reach a wider audience. David C. is ready now. David C. is who this competition is all aboutà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦it was fate that got him into the contest in the first place. He was at the auditions to support his brother and it was the producers that told him he needed to enter the competitionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and so he didà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦on a whimà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦I think fate brought him to us and his skill as a singer should make him the winner. The producers saw something in him and I do tooà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦I hope that David C. is crowned the winner of Season 7.

I actually broke my rule, and, decided to throw Cook a few votes. It wasn’t much, but, I did it for Jason’s roommate.

I would have loved to see Jason in the finals, but the writing was on the wall from the Judges starting a few weeks back when they saw that Jason was a threat to be in the finals…that’s when they started to really treat Jason like chit. So since my Jason couldn’t win, I hope David Cook walks away with the honors. I still think Jason will outsell most of the contestants from this season…it will be close with David C. though cuz he is awesome too…

Awwww, thanks skylight. :-)

ETA: Just be thankful that Jason didn’t have to don that silly boxer bathrobe. Ugh for Cookie!!

I can’t sleep .. i was so disgusted with idol tonite
what obvious pimping of a singer that sang the same song the whole season .. only the lyrics changed…

david cook is so deserving to win this title… he has shown diversity and guts and talent all season long

david cook you did yourself and your fans proud YOU ARE MY IDOL :)

DCFTMFW!!!

David Cook has kicked ass for weeks now. I doubt anyone can deny that unless they’re totally fan driven.

What came down tonight was an absolute disgrace powered by the Idol Machine. Say one thing do another. But that’s beside the point.

The winner this year will be expected to sell a minimum of 1M or they’ll be deemed dead weight and gone. David Archuletta might, maybe, probably won’t meet that goal this year and won’t in years to come while David Cook has the potential to sell more than Daughtry.

David Archuletta has no stage presence or ability to conduct himself with confidence in an interview. He’s an extremely shy novice when it comes to presentation and PR, His talent is limited to ballads – ballads aren’t a bad thing but are clear limitations. (how many people do you know who bought an album chock full of ballads this year?)

So, I ask again, why would David Archuletta’s fans want him to again face failure. He has a lovely voice, one that could disappear tomorrow — his vocal limitations are obvious, outdated and dependent on weak vocal cords. If he were to win this farce he’s staring failure in the face.

If I wanted the best for David Archuletta I’d wouldn’t vote for him.

Why was he pimped so heavily tonight? I do think that he gave his all and it was very pleasant. Was it exicitng? No. Will he be successful in years to come? No.

Dial Idol score: David Cook 42.696 David Archuletta 30.741. Huge.

If I were a fan of David Archletta I’d set him free.

Please please, west-coasters. Only one hour and 10 minutes to go, and Cookie’s margin on Dial-Idol is decreasing. Whatever power you have left in you – now is the time to give it one last push and get him to win.
If anyone has family of friedns in the west coast who aren’t voting… any blackmail meterial available?
Kidding.

But seriously – this is now down to the wire. let’s go out of this on top.

DCFTMFW.

Oh, this has been a long night. Sorry for the spammage, mj.

I’m still going! I have my coffee, my cell phone and my landline…

DCFTW!!!

Couldn’t agree more Carolina…it would be kinder to let David A. lose so he could come back when he’s ready to reach a wider audience…now is not his time…but it is David C’s time…I’d bet that David C will reach 1-mil in sales in no time…There have only been 2 really successful winners, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood…did you notice that when they mentioned past winners that were highly successful they only showed Kelly and Carrie’s picture?…It would be nice to be able to say there were 3 successful winners of Idol…I don’t think the West Coast will let us down…Here in the Midwest the fingers must have been flying dialing for David C…I only got through 1 time in all 4 hours…on all 3 numbers! Midwest did our job…it’s now up to you, West Coast and Hawaii! Do us proud!

As a Jason fan, I can honestly say I didn’t want him in the finals. I’m very happy with where he placed in the contest.

Jolene – you rock! Back to voting!

Wherever you are in the world, vote, vote, vote! This is your way of thanking David Cook for all the music he has given us these past three months, he deserves the title more than anyone else:

Call these numbers!

18664365701
18664365703
18664365705

Jolene:

not trying to “convince” anyone of anything. just telling it like I see it, and you see it differently.

Oh, for perspective — the huge gap between Taylor and Katherine on Dial Idol — 8.0.

Today we’re looking at a difference of 11.95.

True skylight – Because of the way Jason went I think he’ll have even more success and more fans rallying around him…Look at Daughtry…fans got fired up and helped him get to number 1…I just selfishly miss seeing him on the tube every Tuesday night. Sigh…there’s just something about Jason that you got to love…his voice, his eyes, his smile…

WA state checking in. Still voting for Cook.

Reactions to tonight.

1. Hated the boxing analogy. Was that really necessary? I thought it was extremely silly.

2. Paula. Puh-leeze put a sock it Paula. In other words, do be quiet, there’s a good girl. :mrgreen_wp:

Mixed reactions on the performances. Yes Archie brought it on in a polished way. Cook took the less ‘safe’ road.
In terms of tonight’s performance only than Archie did sound better. Overall Cook has been more creative and consistant and I believe he will prove to be so throughout his career. Archie needs more time. I’ve thought that all season.

So, I just ran and bought Jason’s, Cook’s, and Carly’s songs from I-tunes so I can play them for the captive audience at work tomorrow.

Did anyone post this yet? From DialIdol, good news:

“Let’s be clear – DialIdol is definitively predicting that David Cook will win American Idol. No ifs, ands or buts about it. No crazy margin of error claims or anything. The DialIdol scores are significantly different enough to wash all that out the window.

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me (DialIdol) given that David Archuleta “knocked out” David Cook during the performance show so before you decide to skip the results show tonight you might want to consider that I myself will be watching with the usual uncertain anticipation that has become habit for me!”

LET’S BELIEVE IT WILL TURN OUT AS IT SHOULD BE! Cook will take the cake.

OK, the voting lines are closed for me.
AZ just got the busy signal after 4 solid hours of voting.
Take it away CA and West Coast. You’ve got one more hour and could help make a big difference in this race.

Vote for Cookie!!

I agree, Simon rubbed our noses in it tonight. He knew we would retaliate by voting for our favorite Idol. It was cold, hard manipulation period. It came off as particularly cruel and un-called for.

Does anyone know how much AI gets for every phone call or text message tonight? Just wondering. Behind all the obvious pimping, there has to be some money involved.

Carry on DC fans and help Cookie bring home the win he deserves.

Despite the huge dial idol lead, I am unconvinced that the show is not rigged and they can pick who they want to win.

Dial Idol is now showing…
David Cook 42.22
David A. 30.88
Difference of 11.84

And yes indeedy, they are showing David C. as the winner in green and David A. as the loser in red.

Fingers crossed, prays really really hard.

Somebody get Jolene some smelling salts. Dial Idol lead is increasing again……Woo Hoo

Honestly….based on the Idol season 7, who’s CD would you buy?

Fingers crossed, prays really really hard.

Gets on knees to join you, steeples fingers while they’re crossed.

No worries–David Cook will win. People don’t vote because of one night and oh, by the way, I loved all of his performances tonight. He sings my kind of music. Hell, I bought everything he put out. You can hear his “soul” when he sings.

On Dial Idol…
Here’s another way to look at the scores…

Busy Signal percentages
David C.
Line 1 – 44.97
Line 2 – 44.4
Line 3 – 45.03

David A.
Line 1 – 33.23
Line 2 – 29.8
Line 3 – 31.18

Oh how I love me the busy signals…

Continue voting, dial idol lead is diminishing, don’t let it sleep, David Cook is the winner!

The show can pick who they want but I think that’s limited to a reaonable margin of error.

What that margin is anyone’s guess. And, knowing how controlling the empire can be, it could be 2% and they stretch it to 30%. Who would know the difference?

If Idol decides to go to the other side and crown their chosen winner, I hope there’s enough voters who will stand up, speak out and turn off Fox.

Honestlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.based on the Idol season 7, whoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s CD would you buy?

i’d buy anything put out by DAVID COOK and JASON CASTRO and Michael Johns

LETà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢S BELIEVE IT WILL TURN OUT AS IT SHOULD BE! Cook will take the cake

Despite the huge dial idol lead, I am unconvinced that the show is not rigged and they can pick who they want to win.

I don’t believe the results are rigged, but I am very concerned about the texting. I think the Arch camp might have enough of a lead in texting votes for it to change the picture Dial Idol is painting.
That’s why I firmly believe DC needs every vote you can give him for the next 40 mins.
It’s almost over. It should end with the right guy winning.

colleen you called it!
it’s all about the money
simon was thinking financialy tonight-taking care of his bussines.
expect ryan to anounce tomorrow that this was the biggest vote in the history of the show
tonight’s show was aimed at reaching that goal!

David Archuleta blew Cook away. Cook might beat him, but Archuleta was awesome. I know this place is a Cook love fest, but the truth is the truth.

Oh, I am back to voting after I thought my voting time was officially over. I am in Hong Kong and I need to make international calls to vote. I used a specific international phone company (prefix) to make calls (meaning: cheap rate) and probably their hub was on the East Coast.
Just now I know the voting time might not be over, I used the more expensive prefix (about US$1 per call) and I got through about 10 minutes ago (their hub might be on the West coast)!!!

So, I am now dialing like crazy but it’s always busy signal since my first try. But I will continue to try until the voting period is over. But please guys, do let me know when it’s over. It’s like 3:21pm in Hong Kong. I have no idea when the voting will be over.

Liza, why are you here if you know this is a Cook love fest?

It’s not. Mj welcomes fans of every idol.

Jolene,
So you can’t sleep either?
Check out the story at bettorsworld. More of what this board has already said tonight. It’s an interesting analogy.
http://www.bettorsworld.com/idol-winner.htm

I have followed the stats on dialidol.com carefully each week. I chart the times and results each night. Next morning, when I log on the site, the numbers change again slightly. They have never been as forthcoming this early in the actual prediction however. I don’t remember seeing them call it this early. They show David Archuleta being voted off. David Cook winning the AI Title.
Taking some Positive thoughts to sleep.

dial idol up to the minute
cookie-41.68
archie-29.96

are all time zones in or is alaska and hawaii still voting. so far, alaska is going to cookie and Hawaii to archie

wee — really?

That’s huge.

damn. wee was right !

weelassie–I’m on the west coast and I have about 22 minutes left to vote!

Wow, I wouldnt have thought DC would be so far out on DI, especially the way the praising went tonight. But maybe the was a good thing, Way to go Fans!!
I didnt vote tonight but and the end, I felt DA performed the best, even though his style is not my cup of tequila.
DC was pretty solid and if he wins, Id have no problem with that.
I see myself probably his music and definately JASONS

oh luckybabe-keep on voting.

Hi everyone, I’m stepping out of lurkerdom for a moment just to give my two cents on tonight’s show.

I have no reservations about giving Archie huge credit for his incredible vocal skills-the kid can sing pretty close to pitch perfect in a technical sense, and I don’t say that lightly. He sang his heart out tonight, and he did a damn good job with all three of his songs. That being said, I had the same problem with him that I have every other week: I couldn’t help but be a bit bored. DLTSGDOM was very well sung, but the lyrics are so powerful and such an integral component to Elton John’s version that I can’t help but feel something lacking in Archie’s run-laden take on it. The coronation song was…well…”cheesy” is a given and not his fault to boot, but it just felt a little strained to me. I don’t blame him for choosing a ballad, it is indeed his strength and comfort zone, but listening to cheesy ballad after cheesy ballad from him, however well sung, sort of dilutes the initial effect his voice had on me. Yes, he can sing fantastically, but how many songs can I hear in the same genre without growing weary of the style? Especially a genre that, to me, is sorely lacking in an artistic sense. And as for Imagine, while again giving him vocal props, this is a song about a MESSAGE. Yes, it is beautiful and melodic, but listen to the words! They’re about a wish, an idea, a utopia even, that will stand as one of Lennon’s most lasting contributions. They weren’t meant to be overtaken by runs and showy technical additions. They were originally sung in a simple, understated, and melodic form that has stood the test of time. To me, this version felt like nothing more than a prop in a talent show. Sorry Archie, I just wasn’t feeling it.

Now, I’ll openly admit to being a David Cook fan. His soulful vocals, arrangements, and sincerity have won me over as a musician, as a fan of the show in general, and…*cringes to admit it*…as a fangirl.:) Billie Jean nearly knocked me to the floor, and several other performances this season have nearly had me in tears. And goddamnit, he’s sexy on top of it all. Tonight may not have been his best night of the season, but I was DISGUSTED with the obvious bias of the judging. Yes, Archie did great, but would someone please stand up for the value of artistry and originality here?! I thought that ISHFWILF was actually very well sung, and the recap at the end was just a dirty little trick in reminding us of one of the few parts of the song in which he was flat. It did feel a bit anti-climactic, but in fitting a U2 song into 90 seconds, that’s pretty much inevitable. The coronation song, again, cheesy as hell and not his fault, but he rocked it out. Not my favorite by any stretch, but he at least worked to put his own artistic stamp on it by turning it into a rock song, and I give him props for that. And I completely agree with everyone who’s said that The World I Know will stand as one of the most underrated songs in Idol history. It was incredibly well sung, and while perhaps a bit more mellow that some were hoping for (myself included), I felt every note that he sang. It was an incredibly fitting end to his work in the competition. And I loved his response to Simon’s critique about having not chosen a song to reprise-this season really was a journey for him, and he ended it as he saw fit. Which is why I love him-he crafts songs in his own style, unapolagetically. I love his pre-idol stuff, and I look forward to whatever he does next. Whether or not he wins (and I suspect he will), he is by far my favorite Idol competitor, and I think that the world of music is better for him having graced it thus far. I can’t ask for much more.

Whew, that turned out to be a bit more than two cents, sorry.:) At any rate, I can’t wait for tomorrow’s show, and here’s hoping that artistry and originality can speak louder than three biased judges.

err..that should have read, I see myself probably BUYING his music

caro
i was so upset with the manipulation tonight, that i just haven’t been able to get ready for bed.

Oh, I am. No worries! :)

goodness voteDC
i have no idea when voting would be finished for Hong Kong. Does anyone know?

wee, I understand! I’m competitive and I believe fair is fair.

Jolene,

Very good point about the texting. But thanks for quoting me! ;-)

I still don’t get the judges tonight, but I’m going to go to sleep trusting the fact that Simon has been heavy on Cook lately, and older demographics (anyone above 17) heavily favor DC and recognize his talent, and while I respect his voice and attitude, DA is just boring. IMO.

Of course this doesn’t mean anyone should stop voting if they are still able, keep it up!!!!!

night night.

AI been building cook as the dark horse through the whole competition.
and this is exactly how cook will emerge on the result show-tomorrow night!
cook takes the cake and AI makes more money off of the extensive vote.
simon desperatley needed something to compensate for the raiting issue this season, and he doesn’t mind sacrificing cook for the cause because he knows that america loves cook and won’t abandon her favorite boy.

17 more minutes of voting left for the west coast voters. One last push to secure victory for DC. You can do it!!

Liza41,
there are fans on this blog for all of the contestants. and we all have an opinion, but it is just that. Personally, i don’t think archie blew anyone away but that is my opinion. He has a nice voice but that is all. And he only sings one type of song-it’s nice but gets a bit stale. But there are fans of all the contestants here. If you are looking for an archuletta love fest and no other contestant than rickey.org would be for you. We like to talk about and give opinions about all the contestants here and give them all respect.

One more post with Dial Idol update then off to bed to pray pray pray…
David C. 41.45
David A. 29.78
Difference of 11.67

A few minutes later and now its
David C. 41.38
David A. 29.72
Difference of 11.66

It’s supposed to be going up, not down! What are you doing to us Hawaii? Alaska? Vote for David C. with every phone you have…sprout new fingers if you have to…teach your kids the art of redial….

Dial Idol 49.3 to 29.6

(slaughter)

idolnerd
it will go up and down. at times tonight it was at 44.87-32.7….i don’t know why the numbers are lower right now-it’s the spread i look at.

It just dropped another point! Yikes!

David C. – 41.30
David A. – 29.66
Difference of – 11.64

Double yikes!

On second thougth….get the wee little gals off the phone…they have school tomorrow…let us grownups take over the dialing…

justic
May 21st, 2008 at 3:44 am
AI been building cook as the dark horse through the whole competition.
and this is exactly how cook will emerge on the result show-tomorrow night!
cook takes the cake and AI makes more money off of the extensive vote.
simon desperatley needed something to compensate for the raiting issue this season, and he doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t mind sacrificing cook for the cause because he knows that america loves cook and wonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t abandon her favorite boy.

I hope that you are correct, but i have this lump in my chest that keeps saying would the judges (esp Simon) embarass themselves so much for ratings. If dial idol holds, they will look ridiculous.

ITIN — Dial Idol adjusts their scores. Calm down! There’s no way Archie can catch up.

idolnerd,
the spread is still almost the same. that’s the important part. it’s still holding at 11.62

so when the west coast finishes, does that leave alaska and hawaii still voting. I don’t know their time zone?

Sadly it drops again…11.60 lead.
David C. 41.15
David A. 29.55

I’m just driving myself crazy here…got to get some sleep…it’s 3 a.m. now…gotta get up at 5:30….I won’t be of much use at work tomorrow. Oh well…it was worth it.

idolnerd,
my favorite part of dial idol is the state map. on the prediction page, there is an area for Geo Predictions. I like to watch the state by state. don’t know why but I do.

weelassie
they had no choice. idol’s future is at stake here
the show is going down hill in the last years and now all this media coverage of the raiting issue and simon not content
YOU DO THE MATH…
Desprate times call for desperate measures!

west coast is now finished. Don’t know how much more time Alaska and Hawaii have.

Cook 41.001

Archleta 29.43

diff 11.57

Life is good.

Alright guys, 4 hours and two phones later, west coast voting is done.

Now it’s time to go to bed (if I can sleep!) and say my prayers. :)

Sleep well and sweet dreams, everyone!

DCFTW!!!!!!!!!

I think Alaska and Hawaii have 2 more hours.

But, Alaska’s population is majority male and they don’t vote.

Hawaii will go with Cook (that’s my guess)

First time I ever participated in two fisted voting. It was an experience. Hope all the work pays off.

wee, I think that Alaska is in two different time zones and one has already voted.

Go to bed– there’s no way that 1/2 of Alaska and all of Hawaii are going to substantially change the totals. Think about it — the entire US v. 1/2 Alaska and Hawaii?

good night! DC just won!

Voting over for the West Coast, and weelassie raises a good point – it must still go on for Alaska & Hawaii.

If DC doesn’t win tomorrow, at least it will be clear the voting is rigged. (This season & tonight have already made it clear the judging is pre-scripted and rigged.)

Great posts, guys. Way to rock the DC vote.

night caro.
thanks for keeping me company tonight (today)

Shoot weelassie – your comment just sent me back to the geo map on dial idol, and it is not a pleasant sight… :-/

you’re so welcome wee — see you in the AM and DC really has won. No other idols had that margin.

Apologies if this has been said before – I haven’t had the chance to read all of our posts yet but I have to say that I am really disgusted at all the obvious gushing over David A., especially after Simon has been saying on Leno and Ellen that he thinks Cookie should win. It just made it look more like they were throwing David C. under the bus, so to speak. Do they really want Archie to win that bad? Kid can’t even interview… yes he has a good voice, but I can’t really see him as the American Idol. I wouldn’t buy his music, it all sounds the same. Pretty boring, really. :sleep_tb:

I would buy Cookie in a heartbeat. I never thought I would see myself buying songs from AI from Itunes (songs from the artist AFTER idol, sure – I loved Taylor and Elliott) but I have bought quite a few of David C.’s songs already!

Anyways, if they really do want to make money from their Idol, Cook is the man. I can’t see Archie doing much in the long term. I really hope the winner is Cookie – either way, Cookie is the one whose music I will be buying!

Oh, and that boxing stuff was really pathetic. Off I go to the beginning to read… :bye_tb:

Re the Dial Idol Geo map – something is screwy – click on California, and DC has almost twice as many votes – but it shows a win for DA. WTH? And how can the percentages show DC so far in the green, when the Geo map is so darn pink?!?

okay nevermind – it was set on predicted loser! Whew!

ann11
ok, you found it. you had it set for the loser:)

I don’t get that geo map either Ann. Go by the percentages/#’s.

Dial Idol just added the geo map stuff this year. I haven’t found that to be reliable. The percentages alone tell the story and have been correct many times in the past 4 or 5 years.

weelassie – obviously i need to be attempting sleep, instead of checking dial idol & zabasearch…:-/

Just woke up- couldnt sleep thinking about DC under the bus. Got a great surprise- DC has won!! Dial Idol has never been wrong on the final and it’s not even close! Yay!!!!

As the winning spread stays about the same, the numbers as always go down as the voting winds down. Does this mean Cook’s winning percentage goes up even though the sread remains the same. Example: 52-42….34-24. Would not the 34-24 lead be bigger than 52-42?

I would like to congratulate American Idol for totally sucker gut punching a truly humble and sweet young man in front of his dying brother, family, fans & the world. Truly one Class A Act tonight. BRAVA AI! You have now reached a new low.

You sure got fans mad enough to rabidly text in votes or happy enough to text them in. After all in the end, doesn’t it just come down to the bottom line for you all which is $$$ ???

AI officially makes me sick. :money_mouth_tb: :flush_tb:

I just went to iTunes and pre-ordered all three videos of tonight for DC. There was no option to pre-order songs, but probably will be when I wake up.

I want DC to rock the iTunes charts, too!!

Lisa – completely agree.

PrplDva – fingers crossed (and I love that you came back here when you couldn’t sleep)

carolina – i didn’t realize the dial idol geomap was set on the predicted loser – I changed it to predicted winner, and DC was clearly covering the country. Yes!

Now I’ll try to sleep, cause i don’t know what i’m typing anymore. Something tells me tomorrow will be the. slowest. day. ever.

I rewatched MJ’s videos, and, something became clear. At least to me. I saw David Cook through a different set of eyes than I’d seen him so far in this competition. I saw a young man, 25 years old, shedding tears. A rocker dude at that. And, you know what? He didn’t care. I saw a compassionate young man, who has a lot of respect for his 17 year old competitor, and, didn’t want to crush him. I also felt he was holding back, and, this may have been the reason. I think I also saw someone who, although he wanted to win, felt that the title would mean more to Archie.

I saw a brilliant young 17 year old, with an amazing voice, who overcame a partial vocal chord paralysis sing his face off. He too, shed tears. He has probably been groomed his entire life for this. Balladeering is his niche, and, I don’t think he’ll stray too far off the beaten path. Its where he excels. I saw a very awkward teenager, who couldn’t whip his way out of a wet paper bag, come out swinging, fighting, to win.

I saw 2 very nice young men, both following their dreams, become awestruck at the magnitude of where they were, neither knowing the outcome, or where this road will lead in the future.

Having witnessed all of this, I still believe Cook will be the better choice, but, I won’t be upset if Archie wins either. This season has nearly concluded, and, I think we’re all a little fatigued. Withdrawal will set in once we can’t see our idols twice a week on the television. This is it. They’ve come into our homes, our hearts, we’ve embraced them, loved them, rooted for them, voted for them, defended them, and, soon we’ll be setting them free to make their mark in the world.

I’m happy, I’m sad, and, when January rolls around, there will be a new crop of wannabes standing in line to capture our hearts.

Thank you skylight! That was a really nice post to wake up to! I was crazy mad last night about the judging but I have to forget about them. These two men did
an amazing job last night, both in their own way living out their dreams.

Lisa, you said it. It sickened me the way the judges pre-planned this clumsy and blatant attempt to throw David Cook under the bus. It backfired as this energized the David Cook fans into a voting frenzy. According to Dial Idol, it wasn’t even close. I can;t wait for the AI finale!!

Beautiful, beautiful post, Skylight. While of the two I like David C better, I can’t help but like David Archuletta as well. He’s just an awkward teenager with a lot of challenges in his life who still has some maturing to do.

They’re both good guys and I wouldn’t mind seeing either win – although it looks like it’s going to be Cook.

Joleen,

You wrote such a thoughtful, insightful post! (at 3:39 this morning). Thank you so much. I totally agree with all your comments. DA has a nice voice, but he over- sings so much of the music; my husband, who is a huge Beatles fan but can enjoy a good cover song, was going crazy with DA’s treatment of Imagine — too many runs with a simple song that’s all about the message. Plus, he’s really lacking in creativity it seems, as he barely changes any of the songs he sings, and has an uninspired, even awkward stage presence. I’m sure he’ll do fine in the near future with his career, but I don’t think he’ll last. The tween girls who love him today will not be interested in a few years time. Even the over-celebrated Clay Aiken isn’t doing so well selling his music these days.

And I totally agree that it’s amazing someone as creatively gifted, smart, and talented such as David Cook even made it (or was interested) in this highly manipulated show. He puts so much of himself into his music, and is able to evoke feelings in the listener, in ways that many other AI contestants and even well-known pop-singers struggle to do. He’s really, really good. Every week has been a treat.

Finally, I agree with you and others who were disgusted with the biased treatment by the judges tonight. Really, really gross. DC’s version of The World I Know was beautifully done, and it was fantastic that DC refused to reprise old material. His other two songs were very good as well, even his best pick of the pretty bad offerings among the song-writing contest winners. Plus, he played his guitar on two out of three of the songs, which in itself should get more praise. And, I agree with your point exactly that I’m so glad that he chose this moment to respond to Simon’s critique and explain what his goals were for this journey in progressing from week to week. He stood up for himself in a respectful, straightforward manner that was great. I don’t know where he gets that humble confidence, but it’s fantastic, and it’s even more amazing that he’s not afraid to show his genuine feelings to thousands of people. I can’t remember ever seeing someone quite like Cook on Idol before, and I agree that he has gifted the musical world with his presence.

I’m not sure exactly what the judges were trying to do with their overly harsh Cook critiques tonight, push for an Archuleta win or try to make the contest more even, or ??? but it was extremely frustrating to watch it. I don’t really see how they would benefit financially from an Archuleta win, or how they would financially from what they were doing. If it wasn’t about the money, what was Simon thinking?

Anyway, I would definitely go to one of Cook’s concerts and am eagerly awaiting his first CD. And, like so many, many others of you, I’m sure I’d enjoy sitting down to get to know him, too, as he seems like such a great person, but I know that likely will never happen :). I don’t know if all this made sense, since I’m exhausted from phoning in my 1,100 votes over that very loooong four hours, but I guess I’ve turned into a pretty hard core Cookie fan :)

Hope that Dial Idol is accurate!

wow… very nice post skylight.

It’s 4:50 AM CDT and FNC just announced that as 1:00 AM, there had been
75 million votes cast.

75 million! OMG, that’s amazing. Maybe Simon had a plan after all.

NOLA,

What’s FNC? Please spell out. Thanks!

Emmalee – BRAVO. Woke up this morning to see Dialidol says Cookie wins. This Finale should be totally interesting!! WOW.

It’s Wednesday….and this question always pops up for me: what is the difference between #1 and #2 if they both win a car and a record contract? Is the product endorsement? And maybe AI should consider giving a CASH prize to the winner to make it more relevant, because a record contract is so yesterday (repeat repeat).

OMFG!!! Dial Idol

DC isn’t stupid …he must have known that Simon was going to react this way.
He chose not to do the idolesque thing by reprising a song, but followed his own artistic integrity.

The keyword for the night is “progression.” The World I Know is the best performance of the night, it was sung completely and he sang it with raw emotions that it just brings you to tears. The competitor did what he sing 2 months ago, and it’s obvious there was no progression.

I rest my case. David Cook is the American Idol, if TPTB declares the boy diva the winner regardless of the statistics against him, it just committed suicide.

woohoo! I love waking up to see that Cookie wins by Dialidol standards! (And it better stay that way!)

I’m still thinking the college age text voters would vote for Cookie, not Archie. So I just can’t imagine text votes measuring in that much for Archie anyway

I’ll have to rethink my pool score now! I had it on Archie to win it all, even though I never thought so, he was just my overall pick since the getgo so I just was being greedy and wanted the points.

DCFTMFW

I would just like to say that i think DA is truly wonderful, his soul shines through. He has a simply beautiful, pure voice. And, would be a truly worthy winner.

But, since Hello, I have been under the spell of DC. I am not a woman prone to crushes, I last felt this way about Marc Bolan. Many, many moons ago. Well, that is not strictly true, I once had a crush on Andre Agassi’s legs, Andre not so much, but his legs whoa! So, here I am at 52years feeling in awe of one DC. I am not a sad middle aged woman, I have a great career, friends, my life is and has been sweet. But wham I am poleaxed.

In love with his musicality, originality, versatility, personality. so many things. Befuddled and bemused I have wandered through the last few weeks of my life, living and reliving DC Idol moments. Am I going nuts, I ask myself constantly?

But I believe that I am not alone, somehow DC has awoken these same feelings in many women in the 30,40 and 50 year age group. He has spoken to us. This 25 year old. Put us firmly in touch with our 20 something selves. The hows and whys of this I can’t explain. Probably never could.

And I believe that if he wins tonight this is the group that will have largely won it for him, this group who have slavishly put aside their lives. And who have voted till their fingers dropped off. With utter determination. Devotion.

I, no longer care who wins tonight cause I have found my winner. So thanks DC for the incredible ride. I have loved every minute of it. Every damn second.

What a night! Getting ready to head to work but checked DI and smiled. Hope the best man wins in the end and TPTB doesn’t “manipulate” the vote of America. I have never voted so hard in my life.

David Cook is my American Idol.

Layla, can you please tell me where you read that about Cookie and his mother? I’d really like to read it.

I’ve watched this show since Season 2. Not ONCE has the person I wanted to really win, won this show.

Dammit, I deserve to have to person I want to win, win! And Cookie deserves to win even more!!!!

I’ve been a Jason/Cookie fan all season long, and since I know Jason was a longshot, I at least had Cookie to possibly win it for me!

Win, Cookie, win!

…And if he doesn’t….I still say Cookie will outsell Archie by the hundred thousands. I just can’t imagine sixteen-year-olds buying into Archie’s album of inspirational power pop ballads. That just doesn’t sound like the “cool” thing.

I’ll be waiting on pins and needles all day for this finale! I’m looking forward to it! I’m looking forward to Jason again. I’m also looking forward to DC taking home the title!

I’m just feeling optimistic! I hope the bus doesn’t run my overjoyed self over by announcing Archie as the winner….

David Cook’s “The World I Know” was the best of the night – I have listened to Cook’s performance repeatedly since the show – it moves me to tears every time – Simon is WAY BEHIND THE TIMES – He thought that Cook should have performed “Billy Jean” but in the world of Tivo, dvr, and the internet, the public has watched this performance over and over and it was great that Cook took a risk and offered something fresh and new! David A was very competent but not nearly as good as the judges would have us believe.

Emalee, FNC=Fox News Channel

Chicago-sally
May 21st, 2008 at 6:40 am
Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Wednesdayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.and this question always pops up for me: what is the difference between #1 and #2 if they both win a car and a record contract?

sally, I always had a feeling that the runnerup was given sucky songs for their debut album on purpose, so that their winner could take off in sales.

A few nights ago, I was watching Larry King Live and his guest was Ryan.
Larry asked that same question of Ryan: What is the difference between
#1 and #2. Ryan said the winner gets better songs. TADA!!!!!!

That explains why all of the runnersup, besides Clay, have not sold well.

tricia56 thank you
you said what i’ve been trying to write down :)

Cook you are awesome :)

In love with his musicality, originality, versatility, personality. so many things. Befuddled and bemused I have wandered through the last few weeks of my life, living and reliving DC Idol moments. Am I going nuts, I ask myself constantly?

But I believe that I am not alone, somehow DC has awoken these same feelings in many women in the 30,40 and 50 year age group. He has spoken to us. This 25 year old. Put us firmly in touch with our 20 something selves. The hows and whys of this I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t explain. Probably never could.

Hi Tricia 56…I feel exactly as you do.

Even though Simon declared a so-called knock out for DA he’s been wrong before….Taylor Hicks!

A little off topic…..but I hope to hell Amanda brings that moron Simon a couple of tickets to her show at the Whisky this Saturday night……LOL!!

Hi Lili,

I found it on Rickey’s blog. I’ll go over then post the link here.

Hey People,

Is there a place where you have a live blog here so I can follow the finale tonight?

Awesome posts Skylight and Jolene. Very well put.

Don’t know if this has been mentioned previously…keep reading comments on each of their “coronation” songs. Neither is the one. The winner and coronation song tonight is “Time of My Life” by Regie Hamm.

Both of these guys are winners. Both are classacts.
I am happy for both of them. Who really cares who takes
home the crown! Look where they were a few months ago.
I’m sure they aren’t complaining.

re coronation song

paula said something about them not being the winning songs so thats interesting
wonder what it sounds like

Wow. If DI is right then that’s some achievement for Cookie. Come the night Archie seemed to have everything stacked in his favour: performance order, suitable songs, mega-pimping from the judges…and he turned in some pretty good vocals to boot! But Cookie seems to have overcome all of that…amazing.

I’m glad I’m not a betting person ‘cos I’d have put my mortgage on Archie :laugh_tb:

Good result for A.I., I think. Cookie will make a much better ambassador for the show, plus he doesn’t have the threat of imminent vocal cord trauma hanging over him the whole time either. With luck he can make an album that will garner airplay in the way that Daughtry’s has and can move those all-important units. Meanwhile Archie gets to take things a little easier for a while to preserve those vocal cords and perhaps gets to do a little more growing up before pursuing his music career full force. And if they can find some decent tunes for him in the meantime I think he could have a hit or two to keep TPTB happy.

So ends another season. I’ve been following half-heartedly this year because Josiah Leming was the only person who made my musical pulse quicken and he didn’t even make it past Hollywood :sad_tb:. That put a real downer on the whole proceedings for me, though I did develop some affection for Jason as the weeks went by so I didn’t lose interest completely. I do hope he gets some kind of deal…I think his album would sit nicely alongside Josiah’s in my collection.

For next year I hope they do something about the crappy themes. I’m no kid but even I felt the lack of current songs, especially coming straight off the back of watching the latest season of X-Factor which had contestants performing hits from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Snow Patrol, Pink, Corinne Bailey Rae etc. X-F does very well in the 18-49 demographic, so if A.I. wants the youngsters back on board perhaps they should take note…

Anyway, thanks for a terrific blog MJ. You are still my first – pretty much my only! – port of call for all things Idol. Long may you continue! :king_tb:

Hmm, I’m reading through these posts and I’m wondering, did some of you not go to sleep at all? Carolina had so much adrenaline pumping last night – I’m betting she’s pretty freaking exhausted right now.

Well, if the DI numbers are actually indicative of anything – it sure looks like DC pulled it out last night. But boy, Archie sure didn’t give it up easily did he? If as I suspect Archie loses tonight, I hope he can still be very proud of himself. And, I hope his dad isn’t too hard on him. He proved himself a worthy competitor, and he really did have some great moments last night.

Even after sleeping on it – I am still baffled by the judge’s reaction to Cook’s version of the Collective Soul song. From where I was sitting, that was stunningly beautiful.

I’m also wondering how Simon will backpedal from last night’s bold proclamations of knock-outs and such. If Cookie really does win, and by the large margin I suspect, I won’t be laughing about him kicking poor little Archie’s ass – I’ll be cracking up at the AI voting public kicking the judges’ asses.

And, because it can’t be said enough – Randy is an asshat.

I’m really looking forward to Brooke & Jason tonight!

Even though Simon declared a so-called knock out for DA heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s been wrong beforeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.Taylor Hicks!

Simon told Taylor he would win after his last song, the night before the winner was announced.

ETA- now that I think about it- he said” you have just won American Idol” after he sang ‘Do I Make you Proud’

Gosh, there is no way I can read all of these posts! LOL.

Voted Cookie all the way. I loved, loved, loved the Collective Soul song and I hope that is the one that is available on itunes.

I missed Jason last night but I am glad he didn’t have to wear the stupid boxing robe!
:rolleyes_tb:

lol asshat that would describe randy.. i’m so sick of his over the top pimping of people…
go figure that his album is going nowhere!!

The judges go for those glory/money notes.. and archie is fullof them … but for me hes just boring.. yes hes got an awesome voice.. but just not the experience to sell these songs properly

cook on the other hand wrenches emotion out of everything he sings. and out of most that listen to him

COOKIE ur my IDOL

now that I think about it- he saidà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  you have just won American Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  after he sang à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Do I Make you Proudà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢

Unfortunately, he has since forgotten Taylor won

are they puttin out a single from these performances this time?

i dont think so all it shows in itunes is videos

You don’t just listen to David Cook. He draws you into the story he’s telling and you feel every cell in his body and then you get a glimpse of his beautiful soul and then his soul reaches out and touches your soul in kind. :innocent2_tb:

ooh reinharv that gave me chills and is so true :)

My local Fox affiliate in Atlanta interviewed Constantine Maroulis who declared Archuletta the winner. The interviewer brought up the Dial Idol website but Maroulis dismissed the figures claiming that Archuletta’s “little girl” fan base was not included in those figures.

I still believe Cook wins by a landslide.

Wow took me like forever to get the site to work .
Last night was uh interesting they both sounded tired and not very good .
I hate to think of either of those corobation songs being sung over and over and over .They are both I am sure nice guys who will both end of with a record deal .I am just looking forward to hearing Jason once again .
(oh and for the record I didn’t vote because I would never in a million years buy either of their cd’s )
I prefer someone who can tell a story while singing ,and not bore or scream at me

For the record Taylor’s cornation song is the only one that I wil listen to like my dh said his was the best one ever

Don’t want to be a downer but I’m still seriously worried. dialidol can’t efficiently count text votes and my guess is that Archie’s strength lies in texting.

Also, I’m convinced that Simon was baiting Cook fans last night. Remember his comment when Carly was eliminated…..something like Sorry, I complimented you last night…kiss of death. He was on tv all day talking about Cook being the winner. However…Randy is an idiot!

My (tired) mind is spinning today – I can hardly bend my fingers to type this. I read somewhere this past week that the average person text messages 38 times. Well, this over 40 year old texted over 400 times last night for David Cook (his full name today out of respect) for all of the times he walked onto that stage and left his heart and soul there. For all of the times he sang the cheesy group songs and NEVER once acted like it was beneath him. For every tear he has shed due to the emotionality of the song he was singing and the personal pressures going on in his life. For taking risks with songs EVERY SINGLE WEEK and turning them into treasures. For being a musician every step of the way and staying true to himself.

So, that being said, I hope people don’t underestimate the magnitude of David Cook’s fans who voted for him based on the ENTIRE SEASON, not just one finale. I’m not sure he will win, but really, there have been few more deserving who have come on this show.

I still can’t grasp what happened last night with the judging. Even if they didn’t care for his songs, at least acknowledge that he sang them well. How COULD they be be so cruel? And they were.

The bus that ran over Jason and Syesha now has David Cook’s blood on it as well.

eta: PLUS over 400 landline calls…..

Just want to chime in and agree with everyone who says the winner ought to be the best over the season not the best on the night. I’ve left comments further up about my thoughts on the night and the season vis a vis the contestants so I won’t repeat them. What I will comment on is the judging – just the sheer fact that has gotten so much attention is, IMO, sufficient evidence that if AI wants to revive itself next year something needs to be done about the judging. Just a few points:

1) A DC win will be better for the brand than a DA win (although DA is an excellent singer I don’t think he’s got the qualities it takes yet to be a highly successful contemporary recording artist). However, a DC/DA win alone won’t save or kill the brand;
2) The issue is the brand. The contestants are pawns in a big game, the judges represent the brand – and they need to remember that. I have no problem with Simon, Randy and Paula having their personal opinions as well all do, but when they are representing a brand, they need to think carefully about what they say. I am absolutely not suggesting towing the party line of TPTB, but the following suggestions might bring a bit of integrity back:
(a) Don’t send the judges out on a media tour the day before the finale and let them spout off about who they think will win. It gets too much backlash which is only exacerbated if their winner over the season is not their pick on the night.
(b) The judges should be allowed to offer accolades and constructive criticism throughout the season, but no overt pimping of TCO – this raises the ire of all the commentators, and strongly suggests the show is scripted.
(c) Don’t compare apples and oranges. Telling DC he should do what DA did is pointless – they are two totally different artists. The judges need to be careful in these types of comparisons – if you can’t compare then don’t, just take the performers for who they are, by themselves.
(d) Do not criticize song choice that the contestants have no control over.
(e) Please do not throw people under the bus in such overt fashion. Seriously, there is constructive criticism and there is a$$whipping. If the show really is about America voting then let America vote.

What I’m interested to see is what Simon says if Ryan asks him who should win – will he stick to his overall favorite DC, or will he “jump ship” and go with his favorite on the night? Either way, the press and commentators will jump on it, as the season has been so full of controversy and manipulation, this is just another bit of amunition to work with.

Ok, so that’s my rant! I’m not sure that the show is manipulated but it certainly looks like it and IMO that is doing more damage than who wins or loses. The judges and producers need to sit down and think about how they can rescue the brand, not how they can revamp the show to make it more exciting. The show as a concept is a winner, the integrity has been lost.

MJ – not sure if I will be back to post tonight. I have really enjoyed reading and participating in your blog this season :)

Personally, I felt they were praising DA just to piss off DC fans and make them vote that much more. AI is all about reverse psychology. I wouldn’t put too much stock into it. Dial a ding dong has DC winning by a mile.

Now, I usually don’t put much stock (or any, for that matter) into DI BUT there is such a HUGE space between the votes that if DA does win it, well, you tell me.

Not that I have anything against little DA. He’s a sweetie pie but I’ve often wondered if he is really ready for this step. He has great vocals but he looks so afraid on stage.

David Cook tearing up last night just about did me in. Those poor boys were in it knee high last night. I can’t begin to imagine the pressure.

My local Fox affiliate in Atlanta interviewed Constantine Maroulis who declared Archuletta the winner. The interviewer brought up the Dial Idol website but Maroulis dismissed the figures claiming that Archulettaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“little girlà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  fan base was not included in those figures.

I still believe Cook wins by a landslide.

Well, he kinda has a point, in a wierd way. I doubt many little girls are signed up with Dial Idol. Still, they measure busy singals, so I’m gonna go with DI for the moment…

But I do find it hard to belive Cook won in a lanslide. I think it’s closer than that.

WOW! Almost 600 posts. MJ, you are bona fide STAR! This really is the place to be for everything American Idol.

Both Davids did a great job last night, really. However, I do believe that David Cook deserves the title. He has shown growth throughout the competition, great personality, and arguably the most diversity of any top 24 contestant. I don’t think David Archuleta has shown any of this. In time, I think he could. But right now, David Cook just has what it takes to be successful.

And, SHAME ON YOU, Simon, for taking Cookie’s “moment” away after his third song. There was NO excuse for that.

I’m looking forward to seeing Jason, Brooke, Carly, and backpedaling tonight.

DC FTW!

I am in Indonesia, and watch AI too. AI aired in Indonesia.
Cook and Archie are awesome , I love them, and BOTH deserve to win.
Hope they BOTH success with their music career.

Sad that today will be the last episode this season.

But, next January, we will be entertained again and will love another contestant AGAIN.

Me thinks there are going to be some surprised/disappointed peeps tonight.

Just wanted to be the 600th comment!!
But anyways does anyone know when/what single is being released by the contestants

I had no intention of wasting my time last night voting for either of them. I thought, they are both great in different ways and whoever wins is fine with me. Then, I watched the show and the ridiculous, blatant, over the top praise of DA made me sick. I dont like to be treated like and idiot, I dont like to be played. Did the judges and Idol in general think we wouldnt notice the pathetic game they played? The over the top outright coronation of who their new idol would be?

Sooooooo, I picked up the damn phone and dialed for an hour and a half. Its been a long time since the last time I did that. OK, Sanjaya doesnt count.

What, are they afraid DA’s father will blow up the studio?

Pffffffftttttt, I hope Cookie takes this away in a walk.

WOOOO HOOOOOO.

Thank you all, for giving me a less stressful morning. I was almost in tears last night (ok ok, the obsession will end tonight, so don’t mock me) after those crappy comments, but I still have hope. Dial Idol’s percentages kept me going, but I freaked out with zabasearch last night. HOWEVER, zabasearch now has them tied, and instead of the glaring headline “David Archuleta-The next American Idol,” it now says “David vs. David.” I can live with that combined with DialIdol, combined with Seacrest’s and Cowell’s outside interviews, combined with a majority of the blogs routing for Cook, combined with the fact that in the end, people want to make money, and if they’re smart (TPTB), they know that a little kid with a supposed heart of gold and a pretty voice isn’t going to make that money for them.

All roads lead to Cook.

(How long is the finale tonight? I need extra coffee and a nap before it begins.)

One more thing: I know it’s probably been said before (and I really couldn’t read over 500 comments) but Cook was amazing in his third song. Just the fact that he came out with his acoustic guitar (reminiscent of his homecoming) and sang a song for the SONG, not just to show off his voice, that is music is about.

Didn’t Clive pick Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me for Bo Bice as well? You’d think that, with all the other possible songs to choose, one would try to be a bit more original.

Well, he kinda has a point, in a wierd way. I doubt many little girls are signed up with Dial Idol. Still, they measure busy singals, so Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m gonna go with DI for the momentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

Of course, this assumes that all of Archie’s fans are little girls, something I believe to be untrue.

I don’t really check DI, and I’ve never really put much stock into what it says. But, for a statistical sample of what should be a pretty tight race, that appears to be a pretty large margin of victory. So, I’m inclined to believe it could be true.

Of course, there are no guarantees, and the Cook fans could be disappointed tonight. But, all in all, I think David Cook did a great job last night and was punished instead of rewarded for it. I think the extremely high vote totals may have something to do with a judge backlash. And, it sure seemed to motivate the Cooktards.

Finally went to bed last night after being able to only vote one time in four hours. Just checked Dial Idol and I can only say I hope they are on the mark. It at least gives me some hope for tonight. I think David A. is a wonderful singer since he’s “only 17″. But David Cook’s performances were touching throughout the season. I also think he is better prepared to handle the madness that will come with the win.

As for the judges – I’m tired of hearing the same thing out of Randy’s mouth over and over. Paula I usually skip over and don’t even listen to. I don’t always agree with Simon (especially last night!) but I will listen to what he has to say. I think it was inappropriate to “crown” the winner last night as they attempted to do.

My (tired) mind is spinning today – I can hardly bend my fingers to type this. I read somewhere this past week that the average person text messages 38 times. Well, this over 40 year old texted over 400 times last night for David Cook (his full name today out of respect) for all of the times he walked onto that stage and left his heart and soul there. For all of the times he sang the cheesy group songs and NEVER once acted like it was beneath him. For every tear he has shed due to the emotionality of the song he was singing and the personal pressures going on in his life. For taking risks with songs EVERY SINGLE WEEK and turning them into treasures. For being a musician every step of the way and staying true to himself.

Amen to that! And that is what makes him the winner in my opinion, and to quote Simon from Mariah week (I think), “that’s the sign of the great potential artist….” Regardless of what happens with tonight’s formalities, out of the two I think David Cook will come out winning in the end. OK, now I really am off to do some work!

Still angry about last night but I suspect that it will all be worth it tonight. Why? Cuz if you don’t dream big, what’s the use in dreamin’?

Damn it , David Cook has to win!!! I’m a wreck!!
Oh, what he does to me……………………… :wub_tb:

JessC77
May 21st, 2008 at 9:09 am
Damn it , David Cook has to win!!! Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a wreck!!
Oh, what he does to meà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

Have faith- he did.

I turned off AI too early last night and missed Ruben!! Does anyone know where I can watch Ruben from last night?

Archie made himself and his fans proud but I think when all things are over this season it will be clear, that between the judges and performers there is only one college graduate. DC was smart and that Collective Soul song choice in the end showed me something special. The only time I have seen someone with a bigger brass set on AI he was saying, “Hi Dave”.

One more time for those who didn’t get it.

Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all the kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on.
I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in new york city
And I dont know why.

Are we listening to hyms of offering?
Have we eyes to see that love is gathering?
All the words that Ive been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding into one.

So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below.
And I laugh at myself
As the years roll down.
cause its the world I know.
Its the world I know.

Congratulations David Cook ……..You did it your way and it was good.

OK, I have 13 pages of comments to read. Couldn’t get in this site at all last night.
First round – I thought they both did well but I thought that Archie was really trying, really bringing his A game. 2nd round – I thought David’s song was the better of the two – the first time I’ve heard a coronation song that wasn’t just drippy with syrup and, if forced to hear one of them on the radio, I would have chosen David’s as it was just happier. Archie’s choice left him w/ 3 ballads, which I didn’t think was a good move. 3rd round – I am an old fart so I was completely unfamiliar w/ Cook’s song. Sounded good to me but I’ve no idea if he played it straight or mixed it up again. Archie I thought tried hard with “Imagine” but, as it’s one of my favorite songs by my favorite artist, there are 2 key things that make “Imagine” what it is, for me. One – the lyrics. Archie yet again awkwardly started towards the end of the song and left out the BEST two verses. Secondly, it’s that it’s a very simple melody and does not need to be embellished with a lot of runs. So, to me, he ruined it again.
This is the first time I’ve seen Simon give EVERY round to the same guy. He always makes it a tie in the 1st 2 rounds w/ the third being the “deciding” round. I do think that Archie brought his A game and that maybe he was wanting it a bit more than Cook, but I still prefer Cook. I don’t want Cook to be Biced or Taylorized w/ crappy material and poor promotion, but I also think that Archie isn’t ready to handle the stress of being the Idol.

I hope this works…..this is Rueben from last night.

O.k. It didn’t work…but you can find it on YouTube!

I’m just gonna trust that David Cook is the winner!!

Emmalee May 21st, 2008 at 5:37 am

Even the over-celebrated Clay Aiken isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t doing so well selling his music these days.

I voted like crazy for DC too and I pray that he wins. he deserves it for many of the reasons so well stated, but just how well do you think even David Cook will sell on his 4th CD without any radio play? Chew on that for a minute. Clay has toured with 9 successful and often sold out tours in 5 years. He’s had 2 TV specials, a hugely successful starring role on Broadway and no radio for 5 years. We all know that radio drives CD sales, as evidenced by Kelly, Carrie and Chris.

I can only hope that DavidC will be as over-celebrated as Clay is in 5 years time.

Thanks JessC77 I found it!! I thought Ruben did a great job.

Your welcome penzap!
I love Rueben too!

I’m sure mj will post the Reuben video soon, if she hasn’t already.

I’m inclined to think that Zabasearch’s “tie” proves the site really is a fake as several of you have warned. Now, with the supposed tie they’ve claimed, they can’t be “wrong.” They don’t even have the brass ones to be *convincing* fakes.

I’m going to try to dive into work today so that I don’t drive myself absolutely nuts before tonight’s show.

I’m so proud of David Cook. God, even just typing that makes me tear up.

Random thoughts . . .

-Ruben was awesome, awesome. the pics of Carly made me miss her!
-Randy is the biggest blowhard ever. Yes, he blows!
-I loved Paula’s pink sparkles.
-Please button your shirt Simon.
-I kind of liked Archie’s coronation song, but hated Imagine.
-Voted like crzy for DC and got hardly any busy signals. When I got tired my daughter took over. Loved DC’s U2 song. US, in my opinion is hard to do. Great job.

Jim Cantiello!
LOLZ!

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1582109&vid=234431
Last Night’s American Idol in 60 Seconds

Jason fans – check it out!

Thanks, sciencefan. Cute.

ETA: and WTF? Teleprompter with lyrics? Jason could have used that a couple of weeks ago!

To whoever asked it above, yes, Clive Davis picked Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me for Bo Bice in Season 4 as well. And I agree, you couldn’t pick something just as sappy but different for David A? Geesh Clive, you have a whole arsenal of songs at your fingertips and that was all you could come up with? Oh and btw, Bo blew that song out of the water imo.

I don’t know if anyone has weighed in on that smile and wink that Simon gave David Cook after his last song/comments last night but my take on that is that Simon was telling David C that it was okay he spoke back about why he chose not to reprise Billie Jean or Hello and that David said the show was about progressing. I totally agree with David C, it should be about progression and that includes musical styles as well. David C is much more current and with the musical scene than David A is with those “old man” crooner songs he constantly chooses.

Thanks sciencefan loved it ( said in a Simon style )

I’m pretty sure this is going to be the longest day ever.

I have a feeling that Simon was really just trying to push Cook fans to vote even harder.

Analog Girl – this is the feeling I got last night. I didnt see any intentional “under the bus pushing” from Simon. Especially seeing his wink to David C at the end. David C is who he wants to win and he said that on Leno and Ellen. David C just didnt blow him away last night but he has in previous weeks – over and over. I think Simons comments helped David C in urging his fans to vote harder than ever last night. David A did really really well last night and I am not a fan of his but he really amazed me last night. David C got my votes but I felt some real passion from David A last night for the first time – not just “by the numbers”

Jovi I agree with you about the wink.
And chachi I agree with you about the longest day ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I can’t read 13 pages and don’t know if this has been posted. Last night’s coronation songs…. weren’t the coronation songs, but they will be released on iTunes. The winner will sing a different song tonight.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-05-20-idol-songwriter_N.htm

I am too exhausted to say anything except that I have listened to “The World I Know” 58 times this morning. That was the best moment of the whole season for me. Oh, and I hate this show.

ETA: I give DA credit for being less robotic last night but he still leaves me cold. “I kind of almost believed him there” /Randy. I still don’t think he’s the one you want to put forth as a recording artist in 2008.

621 posts? I am very late to the party.

General Thoughts:
—————–

1. How depressed must Ryan be not to get to open the show? He always gets to do the “Shhh! Nobody’s here routine. This Is American Idol [crowd erupts]” thing. The new way to open it is cute.

2. Loved the giangantic, stoic security guard standing in the mosh pitt. One of these things do not belong. I would have liked to have seen him bounce people for swaying out of sync with the beat. That would have been good TV.

3. So, the two of them are competing for a heavy weight title reserved for superstars…Kelly, Daughtry and Carrie. Looks like they’ve finally re-written history. He may be a superstar, but he never won the title that these two are fighting for. Oh, by the way. The boxing theme opening was cute, but we don’t need to see a boxing analyst. That’s carrying the metaphore on too far. Although, this competition is often as fixed as boxing matches. Was one of the contestants paid to take a dive, or will the judges just shoot one of them?

4. Never in the bottom 3? There were only 3 contestants last week. They were both in the bottom 3. LOL. They haven’t even started singing and I’m up to 4 comments. This is going to be a long recap people. Scroll Bar->

5. Simon thinks you have to hate your opponent. What an asshat. How about just respect them? Everything isn’t a blood sport, dude. Contestants completely ignore him. Yay!

6. Wallet chain alert! Ack! Get security out of the mosh pitt and onto the stage. I cannot believe how these “rock” contestants are constantly forced to wear wallet chains for fear of having their wallets jacked on live TV. This is not acceptable!!!!!

7. Clive dressed up for the song selection. I kind of miss the electric blue pajamas.

8. ALW just can’t get enough of mentoring can he?

9. Duel of 2007, Randy? That’s so LAST year.

10. Umm….are they getting fed lyrics tonight? I’m sure I saw a teleprompter in action there.

11. I LOVE the stage setup. I love having the band back on the stage and I love a set of stairs that are not a safety hazzard. We still have the mosh pitt, but you can’t always get everything you want. I HOPE HOPE HOPE that they re-do the Idol main stage for next year.

12. Loved ALW bagging on the lyrics for the coronation song. You go ALW!

13. I can’t believe it took me until the fourth song to spot Constantine. I knew he was there, lurking.

14. Ruben made me smile. He’s just such a great guy. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they let us watch the death reel this year. See, you can show us the star while also letting us enjoy the video. Last year was a travesty and I still feel robbed.

Performance Thoughts:
——————–

1. Cookie – “I still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – Ear monitors are back…Clive brought a bunch of stiff suits with him all lined up in the front row. Everybody else is jamming to David singing and you can see them doing mental calculations in there heads “Carry the four, divide by 2, take the reverse log…hmmm…quite a tidy profit”. Great job with the singing. A little lifeless and practiced though. Dude needs a nap. Threw in a great glory note at the end. Solid performance. Interesting qualifying by Simon. While Ryan is reading the number, you can see how blown away David is to get to sing in front of such a huge crowd. (8)

2. Archie – “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” – Another solid performance. David doesn’t do much to mix up this song. He doesn’t really re-arrange it from the original and it’s his typical style, but he does sing the crap out of it. Both contestants are in great voice tonight which is not typical for this point in the competition (usually, they are shredded). You can almost see him trying to remember to keep his eyes open. I think that the judges are a bit overly enthusiastic with the praise. It was good, but it wasn’t the best of the year (8.5)

PimpWatch: Clive definitely picked the more prestigious song for Cook. U2 is legendary while poor Archuletta got a song that had been sung roughly 1,239,414 times on Idol already. Didn’t Clive even pick this for another contestant one year? It’s always tough to sing a song that others have sung on Idol because the old fan bases will probably instantly dislike it. On the other hand, it’s tough to sing a U2 song because it is so iconic and Cook has struggled with finding something new to do with a rock song (it blunts his ability to arrange something when it’s already in the style he wants to sing it). Still, it’s U2, so pimpage advantage to Cook. On the other hand, the judges were OTT in their praise of Archie. Judges at odds with the producers?

Round 1: Archie. He seemed to be more connected with his song.

3. Cookie – “Dream Big” – Well, once again he demonstrates that he can turn schlock into rock. If you don’t listen to the lyrics, that actually sounded like a Pop-Rock hit. There is nothing he can do about the lyrics and this was probably the best of a bad lot, but I think he did a good job with it. I wish he hadn’t ended it with the glory note because that is going to make him look trite if he does it three times in one night. And, that guitar playing looked a little fake. Was he even playing it or was it just a prop? Randy disses on the song, but gives high praise. Simon spent all day pumping up Cook on the talk shows, but completely undermines him here. What happened to “All Things Considered”? Simon, all things considered, David finally managed to make a coronation song sound contemporary. What is Simon playing at? In other news, Paula calls this “Not the winning song”? Huh. I’m giving two marks for this. Song (4). Execution (9.5)

4. Archie – “In This Moment” – This is an old school coronation song. Even the title suggests that this is a melange of all the coronation songs of yore. Man, are these lyrics non-sensical and the melody is plodding. What a truly horrible song. WRETCHED. It makes me want Archie to lose so I never have to hear this song again. Who picked this thing? Still, it give him an opportunity to show off his vocal tricks near the end and he does sound really nice. I laughed when I saw the anchor on the back of his suit jacket. Was that an editorial comment after hearing Simon do the interview circuit? Song (-2). Execution (7)

PimpWatch: Getting to pick your own coronation song is very knollish. I think it totally favours Cook. Sappy coronation ballad songs totally favour Archie’s style so he could probably have sung any of the 20. Cook needed to be able to pick one he could work with. Randy and Paula seem to be fair, but Simon is totally unfair. So: Producer Pimpage – Advantage Cook. Simon Pimpage – Advantage Archuletta.

Round 2: Cookie.

5. Cookie – “The World I Know” – This is the song he said that he wanted to sing for his choice last week. Interesting that he changed his mind and sang it this week. Was he confident that he would survive last week and wanted to keep the better song? Or did he think the Switchfoot song was the better choice and this is the leftover? In any event, I’m not sure that it’s a great song choice. It’s not well known and it probably isn’t a big enough song to end the show on. For Idol, you need some bombast and that song was a bit too quiet. Nice falsetto at the end. Well executed, but was it enough? That crying will get him a few votes (and no, I don’t think he did it as a cynical ploy. That’s just an observation). Simon gave him the “Thanks for playing speech”. Interesting. BTW I think it’s a little assy to essentially diss your competition before they sing a repeat. (8)

6. Archie – “Imagine” – This is a much better song choice. It’s always risky to do a repeat, but he did it long enough ago that many people may have forgotten the impact. This song is well known, it has a fantastic melodic line and it fills the gigantic theatre. David sang it beautifully. The sparse arrangement was perfect. The song still seemed a bit affected in places, but he definitely sang it better this time than last. (9.5)

Pimpwatch: The producers gave Archie a gift with this one. He gets to end with his big number against Cook’s worst of the night. The other two rounds were closer for Cook. Cook ends on a limp finish. What’s up with Simon? Did he lose his script? Knockout? Is that what the entire metaphore has been leading up to? An opportunity for Simon to give that line? Ryan, “Well Said”? Okay.

Round 3: Archie

Randy – Pretty even handed for him.
Paula – Loves everybody. Nothing new there.
Simon – Curiouser and curiouser. He was all about Cook last week, but all about Archie tonight. I’m puzzled.

Who Should Win: Archie
Who Will Win: Cookie (he has the fans)

The phone lines will be maxed. It will come down to the text vote.

Thank you Cheese…I didn’t know that!
It says “Time of my Life” is the winner.

Okay. I am glad it’s over. The singing is over and the voting is over.
Come to think of it, when I read the news about David C throwing himself to her mother’s arm right after he’s off camera from his final song. I told myself, I want my kids to be raised up like a David Cook person, well, instead of a David Archuleta person (if I have to choose between the two :-)). I want my kid to be truthful to who he is, to be sincere, to be sensitive, nice and during the time of the stressful days, he would not hesitate to throw himself to the ones he loves for support and comfort. I love DA but I would keep on telling myself I would NOT push my kid to go this far like his father does even he’s that talented.
Believe me, I have a 5-year-old boy and I know what I am saying.

OK, guys, this thread is getting long. I didn’t have much time to monitor it last night:

Could we please keep the chit-chat down to a minimum? I’d like to keep the rest of the thread open for recaps and longer thoughts. Thank you.

Me thinks there are going to be some surprised/disappointed peeps tonight

I think so too. Regardless of what DI says I really wouldn’t put it pass TPTB to say screw it with the votes and still crown Archie, everything last night reeked of desperation. That actual winning song has Archie’s name all over it.

Z100 did an Idol recap this morning with call ins. It was fun to hear the callers make similiar posts to the ones here at MJs. I think the strongest argument for Cook is that he will be a winner in the Clarkson/Daughtry mode – one who can be a pop star. That’s valid because I think the show used to be about that. The DJs said Idol can’t afford another flop winner like Taylor.

Archie had a fair amount of calls saying they’d become a fan last night for the first time. By the way, the unscientific poll results were a 50/50 split. But Dialidol’s been on the $ this season. Plus Idol’s lost a ton of young viewers and the average age of an audience member is 42 so I think Cook should win tonight.

Oops, did I say Daughtry was a winner. I think I was confused when I saw his picture up there as an example of a winning Idol superstar.

OT but I’m dying to see who the reps are from each season tonight. As far as I know, neither Blake or Taylor will be there and Elliott’s in Japan.
So who will represent for S5 and S6? It’ll be interesting to see.

Call me confused so both of the David ‘s sang one coronation song a piece ,but the real one is tonight ?
I don’t get it ?

Here is a lovely interview with David Cook from last night! He is really something else. I really do love him.

My Fox KC

OMG, the winning song has the words “magic rainbow” in it. It’s still better than This Is My Now, I guess, but gosh! I’m still trying to figure out why they did the coronation songs the way they did. I guess they didn’t want the two Davids being compared on the same song. They should have just given them an extra free choice. Does anyone really want to hear those songs again? I want a studio of The World I Know, damn it!

IF DC wins, I will be very interested to see if they go to the judges for backpedaling tonight. I’m having a hard time remembering whether they do ANY recapping or pre-results predictions from the judges on the finale results show. From previous years, I’m thinking it’s just a a 2 hour cluster**** of cheesiness, pointy poses, and “special” guests followed by rushed results at 10:08. Maybe they will withhold DC’s confetti to “punish” him for not playing the Idol finale game with them last night. How dare he rock a coronation song and give an intimate, subtle performance?!

I’m still having trouble processing the bus throwing and hope DC doesn’t get clubbed over the head with “don’t you feel bad for winning after Archie’s ‘knock out’ performances?” if he makes the winner’s press circuit.

Frogpond
May 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Call me confused so both of the David à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s sang one coronation song a piece ,but the real one is tonight ?
I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get it ?

I was a little confused by that. Didn’t Paula say something weird about how neither was the winning song?

Regardless, I just want to re-iterate what many have said about David Cook. He was phenomenal last night, and a few different comments from judges could have shifted the momentum of the night over to Cook. Luckily, the American public is smarter than they are often given credit for, and I think they realized that the performances were all in general pretty darned good, and thus voted for who they liked best or who their favorite was. Cook is favored by the majority, thus he will win.

Idol probably wants an apparent shocker win to give them the boost they need. If it was set up to be expected for DA to win, how much of a shock will it “appear” to be if DC actually does? Who knows. Over the season DC has been consistently the most original and talented, so it really shouldn’t be that big of a shocker. Who knows what the heck the judges were trying to pull last night, if anything. I’d buy the Simon using reverse psychology argument, but who knows.

All I know is that DC was true to himself regardless of the consequences, and I think he’s going to be rewarded for it (whether or not he wins). But I think he is going to win because of what he did last night and what he’s done all season long. He’s a real person and a real musician, and he showed us that last night as much as ever before.

I just have to get a few things off my chest and then take care of my poor family who I have neglected in the last week because I just can’t get David Cook off my mind! I was perfectly content going into last night being just happy David Cook made it that far and got out of AI the exposure the he deserved and needed to continue on his career path and dreams. I said to myself just let him have a good night tonight and go out on a high note. Sadly what happened was a nightmare. This kind, compassionate young (hot) man got thrown to the lions and didn’t deserve what happened to him. I have to say it did prompt me to spend 4 hours dialing for him when I have never called in ever before. Could this have been their strategy? I can’t think of any other reason they did that to him and I’m so sad and sorry for him. I hope he know how much his fans love him and are angry on his behalf. I pray dialidol is correct, I don’t think I can even watch the show tonight. I think I’ll tape it and just check out the last 5 minutes. Thanks to all you others out there for making me feel better at 2 in the morning when I couldn’t sleep because I was so depressed.

I don’t remember recaps on finale night. It’s usually a feel good extravaganza with everyone back to celebrate the season including the freaks from the auditions. Then four minutes before the end, they announce the winner and he sings the coronation song. Fade out until Season 8.

I just put up the headlines threads. I’ve got lots of articles posted there. By the way, it looks like there is a separate coronation song. The winner will sing the song that actually won the contest tonight. There is a long article about it in the headlines thread, but here it is:

USA Today

Please let us have done our job and voted David Cook in for the WIN! This 40-something went over her 850 text msgs left in her txt plan she added last week to vote. Also got in phone-in votes. IMO, David was in this for the MUSIC, to do his best and let people decide if they liked him or not. How could you NOT? I don’t get it. BUT I understand it’s so personal & subjective, what music you like. David A has been doing talent shows & contests & what-not for years. David Cook has been a musician & artist & writer for years. And it showed, every time he sang. He laid it all out there, his heart & soul. David A laid out his voice training, his talent show smarts, his singing competition strategies. I don’t know what the judges heard Cook doing last night, but he was incredible. DCFTW! Please.

David was in this for the MUSIC, to do his best and let people decide if they liked him or not. How could you NOT? I don’t get it. BUT I understand it’s so personal & subjective, what music you like.

Yes, it’s absolutely subjective.

Today, I’m going to ask everyone to be extra careful to respect each other’s opinions.

There is an article on EW.com interviewing both Davids about how they chose the songs and how they felt about each other’s performance last night. Sorry to say, it’s easy to see who is the grown-up and who is the boy. And I feel EWs staff kinda favors DC. It cracks me up when they even quoted the many[laughing]‘s of DA when answering questions and I bursted into laughs when they wrote [starts panting].

Zabasearch is updating their chart. They said it’s David vs David Finale Closest in History. I can see the chart is in a bit favor for DC. But let’s wait and see their actual result on their side.

OK, NOW I’ve read thru all 13 pages of comments. Hard morning at work. I didn’t like the boxing analogy – overdone. Hated Archie’s anchor jacket. Liked Cook’s facial hair. I did not like the judges running Cook over with the bus, but I would not be surprised if it was a little reverse psychology on Simon’s part because David’s 2nd song, in particular, was ridiculously boring. Simon’s wink to Cook, and his mention of “Hello” and “Billie Jean” to remind viewers of some of his previous outstanding performances could work to help Cook. I’ve seen the dialidol results & I fully expect Cook to win. I really thought Archie was going to go last week. The only CDs I would consider buying from this season are Jason’s & maybe Cook’s.

I knew before the show that I would vote for David Cook regardless, but like others of you, I was so OUTRAGED at how the judges and the show treated him that I voted my fingers off for him.

Personally, I would have like to hear “Billie Jean” again, but I thought his “new song” comment was thoughtful.

Liked David A. last night more than usual, but going on a season long comparison, well, there IS no comparison. David Cook deserves the title.

I can’t add anything new to the discussion, but I was shocked and appalled at the treatment of David Cook. Caffiend said that Archie sounded great in rehearsal, and maybe [hopefully] Simon did that as a reverse psychology ploy to fire up the legions of Cook fans. It certainly worked for me. As a mid-40s without need for an unlimited texting plan, I have to dial the old-fashioned way. And doing that for 4 hours just isn’t something I’m willing to do. But last night I probably got around 100 votes in for all the good it will do.

I thought David Cook showed all kinds of dignity and class. But that look on his face at the end reminded me of Jeff Daniels in “Speed”, right before he realized the house he was standing in was wired to explode. He realized he was thrown under the bus. I guess Simon’s wink was supposed to alleviate the pain he had just caused.

When you think of all 14 weeks, at Cookie’s performances, as a whole they are just stellar.

Happy Together
All Right Now
Hello
Eleanor Rigby
Daytripper
Billie Jean
Little Sparrow
Innocent (the studio version is all kinds of awesome)
Always Be My Baby
Music of the Night
Those 2 Neil Diamonds
Hungry Like the Wolf
Baba O”Reilly
Yo Face
Dare You to Move
I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
The World I Know

Just WOW. Thanks for the great ride Cookie.

I am so tired today but feeling cautiously optimistic.

I always liked David C but, up til last night, really didn’t vote for him. In fact, I’d planned to vote for an hour for him but, after hearing the judges yesterday, ended up voting for 3.5 hours.

If the judges intended to boost David C’s vote totals last night through their comments, I think they succeeded.

David Cook for sure will win now.

Zabasearch is calling it an Idol Shocker.
So that means a Cookie win after all the praise Archie got last night.

Go celebrate Cookie fans!

Last night, as others have said, I felt like the judges and I were watching 2 different shows. The first 2 songs, Archie was all kinds of pitchy. My brother, who hasn’t watched the show regularly, said that he wanted a DC win for his birthday (which was yesterday). Plus, Archie didn’t listen to his mentor – his eyes were closed so much!

That being said, both performed their hearts out. I still thought DC was better on the night, and got 210 phone votes in for him in 2 hours, but still, a good finale.

I re watched the show and only listened to the songs this time. No comments, crowd noise,nothing, just them. I personally think that David A. was giving it all that he had. I have never voted for him, but I was very proud of him. He made me smile. I’m happy that he has made new relationships with the other idols. When he comes to Rosemont I will give him a standing O. I hope that he gets everything he wants out of his singing career.

Cookie was on fire on his first song, then I felt a change in his attitude during the second. The third song practically brought me to my knees. I teared up then when he cried the dam burst. How does he make you feel that way? I love how he enunciates his words. I love how words, not just lyrics, seem to matter so much to him. I have no school girl crush on him, but he seems to be singing to my soul. It’s hard to explain. I want this so badly for him. I wish I could have voted longer than 4 hours last night. I want his cd now. I want him to be the American Idol.

I’ve noticed that all in this blog have always been Cook fans. Be advised, most are not on this blog and make their own decisions. You have always been Cook fans. Please take this into consideration. I’m not sure who gives the information about young people not voting. Any information on that?

THANK YOU David Cook

I cried, and still choke up, every time I listen to TWIK. It was just beautiful. And for everything else, for being you and sharing your soul with us (Paula does get her words right sometimes).

it’s going to be great, whoever wins.

Zabasearch has in bold red lettering:

IDOL SHOCKER!
COOK DEFEATS ARCHULETA!

http://www.zabasearch.com/ai_stats.php

Zabasearch just called it for COOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!!!

Just a quick question, what is zabasearch I have never heard of it? Is it usually accurate or is dialidol more accurate? How do you do the geo results on dialidol, I can’t find that anywhere. Thank you.

Can someone explain how zabasearch gets their results? I know how dialidol works, but I don’t know about how zabasearch gets theirs.

Sorry, but it was in the news that is not accurate and everyone should ignore as it was inaccurate last year.

Horray!!! I am still trying not to keep my hope too high. I am still listening to TWIK and I swear I feel his overpouring of emotion in this song.

Taran33– not sure of the methodology, but apparently zabasearch takes into account also text messaging, which DialIdol does not

Taran33à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ not sure of the methodology, but apparently zabasearch takes into account also text messaging, which DialIdol does not

Zabasearch makes up crap and changes it’s predictions after the winner/bootee has been announced and then claims it had it right all along.

Zabasearch also has a habit of changing their “results” after the actual results come in and then saying they were right all along. I still think there’s a good chance Cookie won, but I don’t think Zabasearch has any inside knowledge. They probably based that on DI.

http://www.votenumber1.com/voteamericanidol.html

this website has archie winning and supposedly says they have been right 92% this season…..all of these websites are fishy as hell and aren’t to be trusted, dialidol zaba and this are all stupid, and no one should believe them!

I am in a mixed emotion now. I have been a DC fan since his “hello”. And before last night, I was trying to figure out whether or not to vote for him because everybody kinda know NOT winning is a blessing in disguise. Then, last night, Simon threw him under the bus and I just lost myself and saved him by voting my fingers off.

Now, singing is over and voting is over and stats shows that he’s going to win. Then, I start to ponder again whether voting for him and winning is a good thing for him afterall.

I think that you guys are forgetting that dial idol doesnt count TEXT votes. Archie still could win. All of the teenagers will be texting their votes

Zabasearch shifted gears midstream last night. I still think it’s too close to call, but I can always hope….

According to AI forums, Fox News is reporting that the vote totals for last night were 75 million…and they were still counting. Still counting part confuses me a little….

Dial Idol says he won and they have been right for the past 6 seasons even if they don’t count text messages. Zabasearch updated their site at 9:30 a.m. (& they had Cook at a slight lead earlier) and now the header is: SHOCKER ELIMINATION. Think about that. After last night having given the night to Archie–now the presumed WINNER–why say SHOCKER ELIMINATION???? It would be a shock if Archie didn’t win since he “knocked out” and out-performed (per judges).

What you think???

All of the teenagers will be texting their votes

Although I won’t count anything as fact until Ryan declares the winner tonight, I think this line of reasoning as to how Archie (who was great last night BTW) can defeat that 11 pt. deficit on DI is faulty for two reasons. First, teenagers aren’t only voting for Archie. Secondly, Archie fans aren’t the only ones who text.

I think it was practically criminal what producers made the Davids do…the boxing theme and all. I think both should be commended for putting up with the cheese and for being honestly good people. Really.

Dial Idol margin is huge between DC and DA and I’ll bet the ranch it’s right.

Once again, how much are they right, come on guys?

Assuming the Cook may have won the phone in vote per Dial Idol, texting will prove pivotal. Am I the only one who thinks Cook can hang very close to even with Archie on text votes? The general assumption is that Archie appeals to young teens and grandmas. My young teen voted for Archie but had a school night bedtime. And her grandma doesn’t know how to text. Something to ponder.

According to AI forums, Fox News is reporting that the vote totals for last night were 75 millionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and they were still counting. Still counting part confuses me a littleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.

Yes, GwendolynD, why are they still counting? Counting by fingers? Isn’t there something called the computer. It’s just simple adding, right?

I just think they’re trying to make things more suspenseful, and they’re insuring a ratings increase for the night.

I’m clinging to my last shred of hope….

That is why I don’t think we’ll know until 8:00 p.m. for sure, cookie fans!!

It’s kind of funny on Zabasearch. They greyed out Archie’s picture and said Voted off on May 21. Why are they so sure?

But let me save a copy of that page. If they are wrong, I can save it to ponder for a longer time, DC being the idol…..

archie1, who are you trying to convince? Us or yourself?

(i’d give up on *us* if that’s the case)

According to AI forums, Fox News is reporting that the vote totals for last night were 75 millionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and they were still counting.

I think that’s code for cookin’ the books.

DialIdol Predicts David Cook wins American Idol.

DialIdol, under latest comments, CLick to see latest predictions.
http://www.dialidol.com/asp/news/news.asp

Aside from the first page prediction, this insight is helpful for me in digesting last night.

Hope it is true and Cookie wins tonight.

What I’d be very curious to see regardless of who wins is how the votes break down in terms of repeat votes versus individual votes. At the end of the day, the person crowned as winner may not be the same person that the majority of americans actually voted for, and therefore is not who “America” really chose, but rather who the power voters chose. To take a very simple example, if there are 50 million votes and A wins by getting 26 million votes against B’s 24 million, but all of B’s 24 million are individual voters where A had 13 million people who voted twice, we end up with a winner who did not inspire the majority of those who voted. When you look at it that way, it’s really meaningless – the real test is the real world and possibly some successes and failures could be traced back to vote breakdown, I really don’t know.

I don’t think many people changed their allegiances last night and the casual voters would (generally) have chosen the one who’s style they preferred. Neither performer really outshone the other. I can’t imagine that Simon or any of the other judges could manipulate that many people at this late stage so as to have their comments tip the balance. The audience may be fickle in the early stages but by final 2 I think minds are made up.

Oy, I have spent way to long worrying about this. It’s just tv, there are bigger things in life (repeats multiple times while attempting to go back to work….)

ETA – I don’t think they can afford the risk of cooking the books with the other controversies this season. Not that it would really be a shock if either David wins IMO; but it would be very unfair for them to be caught up in something like that that is clearly out of their control.

I think that perfomance wise, Archie wins, but whether the voters see it this way i dont know what could happen. I think that archie has a chance to win.

My first time posting this season, apologize for the long post… I’m a West Coaster, and I’m sure my reaction to last night was the exact opposite of what TPTB wanted. Didn’t watch the show after hearing how it went down, and voted by phone until I literally fell asleep on top of it about 12:30 for DC. Looked like I got about 200 votes in, and most of those came after 11PM. As a side note, I’ve only recently become a big fan of his, as a Brook fan, and I’ve NEVER voted all 4 hours. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing about the steamrolling he received. I just watched the videos this morning, and am more befuddled about Simon then ever. TWIK was the most beautiful, heartfelt song I think I’ve ever heard in this competition. I could listen to it forever. So now I wonder… did I behave exactly like SC knew I would? Or did vote totals show that DC was killing DA, and they wanted to try to make it closer? Wonder, wonder, wonder.

BTW, I’m a statistics nerd (work as an analyst) and unless DA is getting a 2-1 margin in text votes and the text votes now make up 25% of the total votes (both of which I think are impossible), there’s no way he can overcome the phone vote deficit. Dial Idol’s methodology is totally sound there. (Unless someone can explain to me how having a busy signal 33% more often means that DC’s phone lines were less busy.) It doesn’t matter that only a segment of the voting public uses Dial Idol, the busy signal is a random sample.

‘Cause I’ve never said it before… DCFTMFW!

Assuming the Cook may have won the phone in vote per Dial Idol, texting will prove pivotal.

I don’t think anybody can win the phone vote. It’s a dead tie. There is a limit to the number of votes that can be registered by phone.

Example:

Two boxes each hold 5,000 ping pong balls

If you pour in 10,000 ping pong balls into box A and 6,000 ping pong balls into box B, both boxes will still only contain 5,000 ping pong balls. All the other ping pong balls will be bouncing all over the floor.

The phone lines were pegged last night. The capacity is limited. You can’t get in any more than the maximum number of votes (provided one set of voters aren’t listening to the messages longer and keeping the lines busier longer resulting in a lower maximum vote). So, it wouldn’t matter if contestant A had twice as many busy tones as contestant B because those are just uncounted votes bouncing through the ionosphere.

Dial Idol only works when the phone lines aren’t completely overwhelmed. Where people who can’t get in during the first half hour keep trying and eventually register their votes later.

It will all come down to text votes.

Dial Idol does show a level of interest, though. If one contestant is more popular than another, it is possible that it accurately reflects text voting. I have no idea if that’s true though because there are a lot more variables.

I’m deeply divided. I thought Archie would win back in final 12 so I bet on him. I think that Cook will win tonight. Do I split my 80 points by voting 40 points for Cook (since I can’t do anything about the other 40 points) or do I go for broke and back Archie all the way? Go down in flames or go for the middle?

archie1
May 21st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Once again, how much are they right, come on guys?

This season they were wrong once, though many times their “Accuracy” margin was the only reason they weren’t wrong. The one time they were wrong this season, the votes were still somewhat close. This time they’re not even calling it close.

They’ve also predicted the correct winner every season they’ve been running, which would be every season except the first. Admittedly, several seasons this call was a no-brainer.

I dont understand why people who watch the show that some of them feel that it is necesarry to split votes like for example ive seen people say,”Ill vote 40 for Cook and 40 for Archuleta.” Why cant some of you pick a side.

Dial Idol only works when the phone lines arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t completely overwhelmed. Where people who canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get in during the first half hour keep trying and eventually register their votes later.

If the phones were completely tied up for all 4 hours last night, wouldn’t the David’s scores been closer? What accounts for the wide margin between the two contestants?

We’re talking about the “office pool” archuletafan1. I also split my 80 points 40 40. My overall pick was Archie way back when, but I put the other 40 on Cook – although I really have no chance to win the pool that way. At least it will make me feel good to get 40 points!

Why cant some of you pick a side.

Fair to a fault.

If the phones were completely tied up for all 4 hours last night, wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the Davidà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s scores been closer? What accounts for the wide margin between the two contestants?

Not necessarily. Let’s pretend that the maximum number of votes that the phone lines can support is 100 per second. If 140 people per second try to vote for Cook and 105 people per second try to vote for Archie, they’ll both still only get 100 votes per second. Meanwhile, DialIdol will register a much higher busy percentage for Cookie than for Archie. 40 out of 140 calls failed to go through for him while only 5 out of 105 failed to go through for Archie.

If they were completely saturated for 4 hours, the vote totals should be a statistical tie (although there are a few variables).

It’s all up to the text voters who have no limit on their capacity (maybe the phone voters in Hawaii might tip the balance)

Unless I’m completely clueless, (possible) the phone lines weren’t maxed out last night. DC’s phone lines were, on average, busy 43.8% of the time. DA’s phone lines were busy, on average, 30.6% of the time. For both contestants, the phone lines were open more often than they were busy, and DC had 33% more activity. These averages were generated off of several hundred thousand votes for each contestant on Dial Idol. To get a statistically relevant sample, you need 20 random instances. The margin of error with several hundred thousand instances is less than .1%. I think DC KILLED in the phone vote. Unless DA did something similar in the text vote, and the text vote is huge, DC is the winner. Of course, I could be rationalizing!

I read the EW article about the two Davids, and I agree with David Cook that he represents all the other contestants that was eliminated. As starting from Week 1, David Archuleta’s seat in the top 2 is already sealed. I don’t know why, but the rest of the top 24, has to re-arrange songs, cry, sing, be humiliated, all the while competing with this boy who has a team of arrangers, vocal coach, stage dad, and yet after every performance, this boy always have a staple pimp that will say “he is the one to beat and can sing the phonebook”, as he simply just do his misty doe-eyed and patented smile grin, after singing his strings of sappy ballads all thru out the competition. Talk about being TCO. *hohum*

Watched DC videos again…did you notice how when Ryan was giving DC’s numbers at the end of the U2 song how DC was looking around and soaking it all up? Really a lovely moment.

I wish I could really decipher that “wink”. Any thoughts?

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think anybody can win the phone vote. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a dead tie. There is a limit to the number of votes that can be registered by phone.

Exactly Kirsten! That has always drove me crazy when I would think of it but yet, I still vote. :confused_wp:

Kirsten, yes you can win the phone vote. This is especially true in a 4 hour session. At some point you get through. Don’t forget on text voting, it is an AT&T only game. Verizon, US cellular etc are not even in the game for texting votes. Thus you have a more finite number of texters. Also cell towers get overloaded too.

I would love to know what Simon was thinking when he gave the wink, too.

And although I wasn’t very pleased with him last night, I think Simon has the best wink EVER! :) lol

I am REALLLY hoping for David Cook to take the title tonight. He is just SO original and incredible — and the total opposite of “Archu-D2″.

Go DC!!! :)

I had the worst night sleep last night. Little did I know I could have come online to hang out with the others that were/are upset! I didn’t realize HOW emotionally invested I had become, or how much I wanted Cook to win until he was thrown under that bus. (Hello Jason and Syesha!) I admit Archuletta has a wonderful voice and brought his A-game last night, but Cook was the strongest over the season and was also wonderful last night (2nd performance- not quite as good…)

I voted for 2 1/2 hours last night until I fell asleep and only managed to get in a total of 6 votes. Heartbreaking! So, needless to say I am happy to know there is hope. I’ll be able to enjoy, what is sounding like a great finale, just knowing it could go either way.

Just an observation- One of the many incorrect things Simon said about David Cook last night was that he seemed very nervous. On the contrary, I thought David was entirely in his comfort zone and totally at peace with himself and his song choices, which I thought were spot on. From the moment he came out for his first song with his new hair, to his change up in the type of outfits he wore. I could almost hear him saying, this is who I really am, take it or leave it. No more having to dangle on the judges puppet strings and being “safe” in his song choices and comments.

We love you David Cook and you should be proud of who you are!!!!! DCFTW

Interesting, doing a google search of the news articles on american idol, the majority of the journalists seem to think that DA has won it hands down. They seem to be buying into Simon’s bs.

I am excited to see the results and I think it was a great final, two fantastic vocal talents in their own right.

HELP- what is the best live blog where to follow tonight’s results? It will be middle of the night here in London and I’ll wake up (or rather be awake) with my laptop waiting for the result…
THANKS

All must think. Did you do DC a favor voting for him. He is stuck with AI. He can’t go out and do what he wants. He is does what Idol wants him to do. Not like a Daughtry. I don’t think him losing would have been a been thing for him. Well hope your votes were right for him. No hard feelings as I am a DA fan, because I think he will do better not being an AI winner. He has time to go home, go back to school, go on tour and probably be picked up on a contract but able to pick what he or dad wants him to do. One way, he can do what he wants. DC can’t.

My thoughts anyways.

Interesting, doing a google search of the news articles on american idol, the majority of the journalists seem to think that DA has won it hands down. They seem to be buying into Simonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s bs.

You’re right… most news stations do seem to believe that Archie is the winner. I REALLY hope they’re proved wrong at about 10 PM tonight! :) I’m a Broadcast News major in college.. and I’m starting an internship with the Fox News Channel in NYC next week! I’ll bet David Cook will do some interviews there if he wins… I would LOOOOVE to meet him! ;)

I’ll keep on hoping! :)

Theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve also predicted the correct winner every season theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve been running, which would be every season except the first. Admittedly, several seasons this call was a no-brainer.

DialIdol, as of right now as I’m typing, is showing a full 11.5 margin between Cook and Archuleta with the former on top (40.93 to 29.37, to be exact). So maybe I DIDN’T vote in vain last night. I just hope DI is still right after correctly predicting, what, 5 winners now?

Anyway, just a quick thought from last night — I really, really wanted to throw something at the TV last night because of Simon. He’s the most (if not only) useful judge out of the entire judging panel, but the manipulation of the audience last night just made me downright angry. Archuleta did NOT outperform Cook last night, but Simon would really have you think it was so. Come on, giving ALL THREE ROUNDS to Archuleta (I say Archie won the first round, but Cook deserved to win the last two IMO)? I don’t think Simon has ever given the ENTIRE FINALE NIGHT to one person; if I remember correctly, Blake even won a round over Jordin last year. Kat did over Taylor, Bo did over Carrie. Just…ugh. /rant

I’d love to see the look on Simon’s face once Ryan announces Cook the winner (OH, I HOPE)…

Hisaldi, I think that Simon would be very pleased. He has said for weeks now that David Cooks’s music is the only one he would listen to outside of idol.

You and me both Hisaki!

I don’t think Simon has ever said someone “had done enough to win” and been proven wrong. Of course, he said it was “a knockout,” but never technically said that Archie would win. And I think Round 1 was a tie, Round 2 to Archie (if ever so slightly) and Round 3 to Cook. I really did want to throw something at my tv to make Simon shut up also!

Thea,

the best live blog during idol is right here at mj’s — just click the “chat” button at the top.

I know that Simon is a DC fan, but the way he steamrollered over his face again and again last night just got me very, very deflated (although I ended up power voting from 11:30 until I feel asleep, after people in chat finally convinced me to do so). I’m aware that he will be pleased (read: Ellen), but it seems that from his comments from last night, he was predicting an Archie win. So, here’s to hoping he’s wrong, wrong, and wrong.

ETA: Ooh, kcjaye, I hope you can meet him! It’d be nice to meet Cookie instead of giggling, I-can-totally-speak-in-full-sentences Archie, no?

HELP- what is the best live blog where to follow tonightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s results? It will be middle of the night here in London and Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll wake up (or rather be awake) with my laptop waiting for the resultà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦
THANKS

Hi Thea, I’m in Copenhagan. I need the same info for the same reason. Anyone?

Mar_4DC

I actually agree with yu. I think in te end DC said fuck it! This is me and this is what I’m gonna do.

Layla and Thea — as caro said, your best choice is to go to MJ’s chat page here. There are usually about 30 people there for performance nights, and about 20 for results shows. I expect more people to be there tonight since it’s the finale, though.

Dang, the pool says DC and DA are now neck and neck compared to the huge margin DC was winning over him just two days ago…

I can see the smug look on Simon’s face when Ryan announce the winner is DC.
“PSYCHE!!!” “Gotcha!!”

What he will be thinking to himself:

First, I named DC as the winner last week and announced it on the Ellen Degeneres Show and the Tonight show this week. This put the DA fans on alert and got them steemed up, ready to vote back.
Then in a surprise move last night, I called DA’s performance a “Knock-Out”. (And, you believed me!) I managed to get the entire DC camp up in arms, heading straight to their phones to retaliate.
I jerked you here and there and you bought it hook, line and sinker.
You panicked and called in more phone and text votes, after my predictions.
My ego is happy and so is my pocketbook! I must be the greatest TV star in the world!!!
Singlehandedly, I was able to boost AI ratings and create excitement for the 2 night AI Finale.
This proves I am the pupetmaster and deserve the big money.
From now on, I am just refering to SC as Fat Cat.

And we will be looking at him and knowing the truth!

I want to weigh in on whether Simon was using “reverse psychology”. I say NO. I think he was clearly disappointed that DC didn’t repeat Billie Jean or Hello, whereby he could have reminded viewers of the stellar season DC had. I think Simon’s wink to DC after David’s “progression” comment was a bit of a “touche”…kind of like “good point.” I also think Simon got caught up in what he thought a finale night should sound like. DC’s selection of the faster coronation song was atypical. In all of DC’s numbers, there were no runs and glory notes like Fantasia, Kelly or Carrie’s wins. I don’t think he was using reverse psychology because he is vain and won’t want to eat his words. That being said, it’s going to be sweet to see him eat crow tonight. I think Cook is going to win!

Re: voting and busy signals. A friend of mine who voted for DA called this morning to let me know she voted 20 times for DA. When I asked how busy his lines were she said “not as busy as I would have liked.”

So, if you presume that more people were calling DC all at the same time, than they were for DA then you get back to the busy’s shown on DI.

I suppose theoretically you could say that because DA’s lines were less busy, he got more votes through. But I’d say it skews toward the one whose lines were more busy – all of those voters registering votes constantly vs. voters voting sporatically. Also, I tend to believe that DI is not EXACTING certainly, BUT to me it is more of a trend indicator than anything else.

And I also didn’t mention to my friend that her 20 votes for DA were blown away by my 800 plus for David Cook.

eta: I’m really hoping this finale ends like the Clay/Ruben year. Clay (DA) was EXPECTED to win but Ruben (DC) wins!!!

one more time: DCFTGDMFW

I think it’s very possible DC has this. Look, we all knew this would come down to casual vote, and who is more motivated to vote – the people who think their guy got ran over by big meanie Simon, or the people who think, “ah, Archie was great, Simon says he’s gonna win, let’s go to bed”? I think they took a lesson from the vote total bump they got after they screwed over Jason on Neil Diamond Week.

Yes, I am pegging my hopes on DI and I know that’s foolish. But I also know DC fans text just like DA fans, I got a crazy amount in last night and that little kick of rage at Simon (plus some caffeine and sugar) helped me when my energy started flagging past midnight :)

In the end, with four hours of voting, I think it boils down to how long DC’s and DA’s fans voted. I would like to think DI is right again. After all, they have a bigger margin for DC than Carrie had over Bo and even Taylor had over Katharine (though not as large as Jordin over Blake).

People always say “but don’t forget the texters.” I truly don’t think they are the difference makers, unless it’s a one or two percentage point difference on phone calls.

HOWEVER, what scares me is that they had only 3 lines each last night. I thought that there should’ve been more lines for each. Three lines each could’ve made it artificially close.

archie1
May 21st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
All must think. Did you do DC a favor voting for him. He is stuck with AI. He canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t go out and do what he wants. He is does what Idol wants him to do. Not like a Daughtry. I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think him losing would have been a been thing for him. Well hope your votes were right for him. No hard feelings as I am a DA fan, because I think he will do better not being an AI winner. He has time to go home, go back to school, go on tour and probably be picked up on a contract but able to pick what he or dad wants him to do. One way, he can do what he wants. DC canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t.

The votes are in and counted. It’s over. We don’t know who won. Plain and simple. Besides, I think the top 2 are under similiar (if not the same) contracts.

It’s interesting that while Simon gave the “knockout” comment for DA he didn’t say “you’re the next American Idol”

It was also interesting the way Simon turned to survey the audience giving DC a standing ovation after TWIK.

Drivin’ the bus….

But I also know DC fans text just like DA fans, I got a crazy amount in last night and that little kick of rage at Simon (plus some caffeine and sugar) helped me when my energy started flagging past midnight :)

Yeah Michelle! As I stated before, I only got in a handful of votes in 2 1/2 hours of continual voting before I literally fell asleep on my phone. Maybe I should have made some coffee…

It was also interesting the way Simon turned to survey the audience giving DC a standing ovation after TWIK.

I noticed that on second (and third) viewing.

Gwen- too funny!

Over on TMZ sight they say the voting last night was close to 100 milliion votes! Hopefully they were mainly David Cook fans going to bat for him.

yes there is more spoilers over at tmz like almost 100 mil votes cast, and gladys knight, ben stiller, jack black and robert downey jr singing??

Letà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pretend that the maximum number of votes that the phone lines can support is 100 per second. If 140 people per second try to vote for Cook and 105 people per second try to vote for Archie, theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll both still only get 100 votes per second. Meanwhile, DialIdol will register a much higher busy percentage for Cookie than for Archie. 40 out of 140 calls failed to go through for him while only 5 out of 105 failed to go through for Archie.

So it is quite possible that dial idol can reflect the interest in a contestant. The make up of the text voters would have to be substantially different than the make up of the dial voters to reflect that huge margin. It’s possible, I suppose.

Hi Thea, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m in Copenhagan. I need the same info for the same reason. Anyone?

I’ll be live-blogging the finale. There is also a chat room. Just click the chat button at the top.

My guys who host the site have added some extra juice to the site today. Hoping the site stays up!

Simon did the exact same thing in Season 2—told Clay he had it! But Simon was always a Ruben fan…they all were.

Wish I could like David A…but I just can’t. He always looks like he just smelled a fart! He has a between-the-margins, testbook voice. Always found his SO boring! For me David C. is not only a great singer, but very unique. Always has that extra something.

—————
SallyS
May 20th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
What I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t understand is why the judges seemed to be favoring Archie and tossing DC off the subway platform (because thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s what they did). Cook is so much more marketable and is set up to challenge Daughtry after Idol. Perhaps you answered your own question!

All must think. Did you do DC a favor voting for him. He is stuck with AI. He canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t go out and do what he wants. He is does what Idol wants him to do. Not like a Daughtry. I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think him losing would have been a been thing for him. Well hope your votes were right for him. No hard feelings as I am a DA fan, because I think he will do better not being an AI winner. He has time to go home, go back to school, go on tour and probably be picked up on a contract but able to pick what he or dad wants him to do. One way, he can do what he wants. DC canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t.

If I understand it correctly, minors get more input anyway. Something about their contracts have to be approved by the courts, and parents (or guardians) have to be involved, so it makes it much harder for anyone to steamroll over them.

That said, I favor Cookie in terms of buying an actual album, but as far as what’s best for the contestants – I think Archie is better off with the win. TPTB would HAVE to try to make him successful. I’m not sure what they will do with him if he’s 2nd, because then they have the option of chosing to deal with his dad or not. They are going to pull a Daughtry with Cook regardless, IMO. He’s getting signed and he’s getting pushed like crazy, because TPTB smell the money.

“In the end, with four hours of voting, I think it boils down to how long DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s and DAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s fans voted. I would like to think DI is right again. After all, they have a bigger margin for DC than Carrie had over Bo and even Taylor had over Katharine (though not as large as Jordin over Blake).”

Panz – the little DA fans that were voting in my house had to go to bed at 9:30 and thanks to you, for your info – I got to vote for Cook until midnight. I think it will be so close

What I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t understand is why the judges seemed to be favoring Archie and tossing DC off the subway platform (because thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s what they did).

To be fair, I don’t think Paula threw anybody off the subway platform. Didn’t she love them both? I now understand her comment about it “not being the winning single” since there is to be another one today. So, she was just blathering.

Randy was actually much fairer this week than last week. He had some complimentary things to say to Cookie. Obviously, he is an Archie fan and that’s okay (if it’s okay for Simon to say he’s a Cookie fan on all the talk shows, I think it’s fair for Randy to have favourites too).

The one that puzzles me deeply is Simon. For a few days before he was singing the praises of Cookie to anybody who would listen and then he wouldn’t give Cookie a break on the show. Did Simon create an evil clone so that he wouldn’t have to look in a window to see a reflection of his perfection (what a dumb song that was). Why would Simon set himself up this way? No matter what happens tonight, he is wrong. Either he judged the competition wrong on Tuesday or he was wrong on all the talk shows. Simon isn’t that fond of being wrong. He doesn’t like it when people bring up his past mistakes. So, what happened on Tuesday afternoon?

Did Clive bend his ear and say I want the kid to win? Not likely. Clive gave the better song to Cookie.

Did Simon like Archie’s performances better? Not likely. He wouldn’t give the kid a break last week and refused to find any fault with Cookie last week so performances clearly don’t necessarily matter to this dude this late in the game.

Did TPTB change their minds on TCO? Not likely. They could have done more to sandbag Cookie and they wouldn’t be saying they want him to win to MSNBC.

Do TPTB want to prove that the show is not fixed by having the judges praise the guy who was never going to win? That’s a risky strategy and makes the judges look useless (Simon most of all).

Did Cookie eat the last chocolate muffin from the craft table and Simon wanted revenge? This is starting to look like the most likely scenario.

In any event, I have no idea who is going to win tonight. I could see either winning. I could also see either person winning being painted as a hollow victory (Cook wins despite the judges saying he had a crappy night or Archie wins despite Simon saying Cookie deserves it before the show). So, how does the show not end up looking bad? Do they hope to keep the fan war fires burning until they can sell a large number of CDs?

They have definitely thrown the denizens of the knoll for a loop. Nigel is smoking a cigarette.

I admit it I have been beguiled by DC. Beguiled do you hear. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered. Today that stops. This is the last morning I intend to wake and my first waking thought is about David Cook. The last day that I intend to fly downstairs and turn on the computer to obsessively search for DC news, tidbits, gossip, review your performances. The only thing I haven’t done is walk aimlessly round the house, singing ONJ’s Hopelessly devoted to you. I have some pride.

You did it your way (me, channeling Frankie) to the end DC. Thanks for the journey. I can’t wait for the CD!!

sigh

DCFTW

MJ, I’m not sure where to post this link but I wanted to share it since it really shows how great DC’s and DA’s relationship is. If I put it in the wrong thread, my apologies.

http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=253935

Do they hope to keep the fan war fires burning until they can sell a large number of CDs?

That’s my vote right there. The only time they have ever had the winner and runner up both sell a big old bunch of cd’s has been due to being the by-product of a rather large controversey. Maybe these two have been close in the votes and they figured this was their best shot at recreating the Ruben/Clay buying frenzy.

Maybe these two have been close in the votes and they figured this was their best shot at recreating the Ruben/Clay buying frenzy.

Won’t they need an Archie win for this to happen? If Archie wins, the fans can be enraged about how biased the judges were last night, PapaGate and PaulaGate. If Cook wins, after all the judge support last night, Archie fans can only be angry with other fans. There is no element of “being robbed!!!!” The only way it works if Cook wins is if the press gets outraged and whips up people.

I like both Davids. I don’t want to see the press whipping up anybody.

The press is kinda whipping up the judges at the moment…..I think it is quite ok if Simon gets whipped up.

If Nigel is smoking a cigarette….does that mean there are a bunch of bees nearby….(obscure reference)

I like both Davids. I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t want to see the press whipping up anybody.

Yeah – I agree with that. Really, I’m as baffled as anyone with regards to Simon’s abrupt about-face. I just know how badly Simon likes to be right – so there has to be a reason for it.

Randy was actually much fairer this week than last week. He had some complimentary things to say to Cookie. Obviously, he is an Archie fan and thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s okay (if ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s okay for Simon to say heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a Cookie fan on all the talk shows, I think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s fair for Randy to have favourites too).

Absolutely. I thought Randy was pretty harsh last week and was fair this week. And I think it’s obvious he’s a David A. fan, which is perfectly fair.

The one that puzzles me deeply is Simon.

Me too sister… for all of the reasons you state. My money is on the muffin theory. Muffingate ftw!

FYI All,

Don’t count on DialIdol and Zabasearch calling it for Cook automatically.

TMZ moles are reporting 100 million votes were counted. Zabasearch counted only like 65 million.

It’s gonna be a close one.

I still think DA will put out with the win.

Has anyone considered the possibility that the judges/TPTB placed bets on the outcome? With those odds, a DA win would pay off big time.

Maybe TPTB really don’t care who wins. Maybe they believe both are equally marketable. Maybe they just want bragging rights for the most votes ever. Perhaps Archie’s stock has fallen lately, and they thought the excessive pimping would increase his vote totals by giving him the casual vote. Meanwhile, they figured throwing Cook under the bus would anger his fans and get them voting like crazy. The result? A rumored 100 million votes.

All must think. Did you do DC a favor voting for him. He is stuck with AI.

Pardon me? I believe we are *all* thinking. Please do not tell me I am not.

Is this your first year to AI? Both David Cook and Archie get a contract so they are *both* stuck with AI. The only difference in the contracts is who gets the better one, since DC had the best *whole* season, I believe DC deserves the win.

Regarding Dial Idol. Yes it has been right every year. You say don’t forget the text voters. Well I am not, This is not the first year for texting. I texted like a mad woman for Taylor. What I believe DI shows is the way the viewing audience is leaning.

lili I did not see anyone answer your post on the link on DC burying his head in his mother’s shoulder. The Kansas City Star ran it last night and here is the link. Sorry if I missed it being posted earlier MJ, if it has please delete this.

http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music/story/629134-p2.html

Thanks MJ.
I will try and forget I have a job and stay up late so I can join in. I don’t think I will be able to sleep well until I know who’s won.

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for putting that link up for lili. It was me who promised I would but I completely spaced out.

Thanks for the link, Lisa. I think DC really did feel like he was defeated because of Simon’s words, and he looked it too. (((((((Cookie)))))))

Another way of looking at the Simon mystery is that you can flip it the other way, he is covering his bases for either win.

If DA wins and he is questioned about the week’s predictions, he can say DA was better on the night and he said so with giving all three rounds to DA.

If DC wins, he can say DA was better on the night but he predicted that DC would win it all week. He never said, as far as I can find, that DA was the next AI like he has done in past years.

Slime on has covered his ass no matter what.

RE: Simon’s wink. It looked like DC said to Simon “for the record I totally understand what you are saying” and Simon’s wink was “okay, cool” to basically end the conversation since Ryan was cutting DC off.

I keep going back to why they only had 3 lines each. That made for a lot of busy signals. If they’d opened it up to 5 or 6 lines each, they could’ve had a ton more votes and so more bragging rights.

As for total votes, 100 mil would be incredible. I was just reading a site where a guy gives a play by play and at last year’s finale, they said they said they set a new world record with 74 million votes.

Somehow, I doubt that an increase from 74 mil to 100 mil is possible.

I really hope and pray that if David Cook wins tonight…the judges will be behind him 100%. He has proved to be a very serious, evolved, contemporary artist throughout the show. Even if they all agree that DA had a stellar night last night, it CANNOT go without saying that DC has been the most consistent and had many more WOW moments than DA. Yes, DA is a prodigy, a gifted singer, but he lacks the versatility and life experience. He is not without flaw. He surely does not have this competition in the bag as many have argued since the judges blatantly did one last huge pimp job last night. If DC wins he will have earned it. I don’t want to see ONE headline tomorrow that says that DA was robbed. It just wouldn’t be true.

Well…last night garnered higher ratings than last year’s show, and this year it was a much closer race, with more than a little stirring of the pot by Simon to really get everyone going. Factor in increased texting each season and I can believe the vote total could have been 100 mil.

Also, re the 3 land lines…doesn’t limiting the number of lines (thereby increasing busy signals) encourage more peeps to vote by text, and so bring in a higher revenue for the producers?

Interesting view, Seraphina. I think that if you minimize the busy signals, they’d get a whole lot more votes, though not, as you point out, the increased revenue due to texting.

Personally, if I couldn’t call, I wouldn’t vote.

I guess a 35% increase in votes is possible but, even with higher ratings and a closer race, it doesn’t seem probable to me. That increase would have to compensate for the reduced number of calls as well.

We will know soon enough. If they did get to 100 mil, they will certainly be bragging about it, right at the beginning, I would think.

Colleen,great post and I hope your right and I actually think there is some truth to the “reverse psychology” debate .DI is great news but I’m still not getting to excited incase he doesn’t win.I voted the whole 4 hours and had some trouble with getting through but I voted a decent amount for Cookie.Even if Cookie doesn’t win its not so bad he’ll have a contract and my family and friends are all Cookie fans and we will buy any albums he comes out with.

BetterChicken,
Thanks for the nod. Love your name!
Good News for Cookie fans…………….
Bettorsworld.com just gave their prediction and analysis for tonights win.
You won’t be disappointed!
David Cook is predicted to win.

http://www.bettorsworld.com/idol-winner.htm

Have to remind myself that have concert tickets for the AI Opening Concert July 1 Concert in Glendale. Can’t wait to see all the idols perform.

Keep the good thoughts Cookies!.
3 more hours to keep busy before the show airs here. Promised myself I wouldn’t look!

DCFTW

I didnt vote last night since my fav was gone and I liked both of the remaining guys, but not enough to vote. Re. the voting, I remember reading an explanation a few seasons back about the phone lines. It said the lines can only carry x amount of calls, and once the lines are loaded up, no one else gets through. So, the way to win is texting. If both contestants are pretty equaling popular, the one with the most text votes wins. It also said, some area phone lines dont carry as many calls as others. Carrie had the college crowd texting like crazy, Bo didnt and he was from a home town that had older phone lines. So in season 6, soul patrol got out the word the way to win was texting and the go phone orders were sent out. I dont think the vote was close between taylor and kat so the go phones may have not mattered that much. I think this year, texting will make all the difference and the younger crowd is more prone to texting, thus DA may have the advantage. If DC gets runner up, I hope he gets a deal that he can turn clive down. Runnerup gets the same press, but not as good songs and promotion. Why would they want the runner up to out sell the winner? Ryan said as much re. the good songs on Larry King. You would think that runners up would have done much better since they were all so talented. But no, they all signed with clive, hint hint.

Well, Clive is out. But I agree with your logic. Idol needs a big selling WINNER now, not another finalist who proves winning doesn’t matter. The runner up will be left to shift for himself IMO, with the same expectations but not so much support.

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“Once again, how much are they(Dial Idol) right, come on guys?”

Dial Idol has never been wrong when a contestant gets blown out like Archie did last night. All over but the shouting. David Cook is this years AI !

“But I do find it hard to belive Cook won in a lanslide. I think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s closer than that.”

Keep in mind, David Cook has gained on Archuletta for nearly two months now. Overtaking the lead from DA many weeks ago. When Castro left the show, DC’s lead over DA widened. A clear indication his fanbase had increased.