Season 7- The Finale! – Recap

DAVID COOK WINS AMERICAN IDOL BY 12 MILLION VOTES

Click link for Video! (I just posted the 6 minutes the show ran over 10 pm, just click the song link for “Time of my Life”. I’ll have Brooke’s duet and a few other things in the morning…)

Ryan Seacrest says there were 97.5M votes last night.

• 56% – The Winner
• 44% – Runner up

Recap with video after the Jump…

• Mikalah Gordon is in Missouri, hosting David Cook’s Hometown party. Matt Rogers is in Utah for David Archuleta’s Hometown party. Viewing parties. Where rejected American Idol Extra hosts go to die…
• The Top 12 and the So You Think You Can Dance dancers perform “Get Ready” Much pointy posing and crazy dancing ensues. Motown is super cheesy! Not only do we get the pose, there’s SMOKE!
• The Davids make a quick change into brown. They sing “Hero” from Spiderman. Cookie is wearing a leather jacket and a wallet chain. Their vocals don’t blend well, at all. This song (not them) kinda sucks. Nickelback: Ew.
• OMG. Cross promotion. BOO. TPTB have worked in an obnoxious preview of Mike Meyers new movie, “The Love Guru”. The Davids went to a screening. After, they palled around with Mike Meyers in character. Um. No? After the vid, Meyers is wheeled out onto stage on a carpet thingy, in character. He’s doing some really annoying “I predict a David will win” shtick. This is almost as bad as Robin Williams on IGB.
• Syesha Mercado takes the stage with Seal to sing “I Have Been Waiting” Wow, this is kind of a mess. Who can sing off pitch the loudest and the longest?
• Jason Castro sings “Hallelujah”. The mosh-chicks need to cool it. The performance lacked the WOW factor of the first time, but it’s still WONDERFUL. Very emotional, very moving. Melinda Doolittle is digging her some Jason! The idiot edit continues: Ryan Seacrest says interviewing him was like “pulling teeth.” I dunno, Jason seemed pretty articulate to me on the interview circuit last week…
• Ford Commercial “Let the Good Times Roll” features highlights from all the Ford commercials. David Cook and David Archuleta are back on stage. They are both awarded Escape Hybrids. I’d rather have a Mustang, thanks.
• The Top 12 girls perform the hits of Donna Summer. They’re all dressed in red. Amanda Overmyer looks THRILLED. No, actually she doesn’t. Her solo sounds like she’s underwater. Carly Smithson belts it out crazy! Here comes Donna Summer. Wow. They literally have to help her down the stairs. She looks a little crickety. Keeping up with the music would be nice! Ryan Seacrest is sitting on the stairs, practically on top of the dancers. (Eta: I completely missed him dancing–funny!) . Paula Abdul grooves to “Last Dance”. Syesha sings a little duet with Donna. Donna comes alive!
• Carly Smithson and Michael Johns get a consolation prize duet. They sing “The Letter”. This is pretty f*cking hot. Carly’s wearing a short black/silver dress with black tights. Michael has a black t-shirt and jacket. Yes, HOT.
• Jimmy Kimmel is next. Finally, some humor. Thank you! He just parked his car. He wants to know how much to tip Sanjaya. What would Ryan Seacrest look like without the metrosexual extras? Flash a picture of Chris Sligh.
• The Top 4 guys sing Bryan Adams’ “Summer of 69”. Jason Castro…Ouch! The Davids are introduced, singing “Heaven.” The guys don’t blend so well together. Byran Adams takes the stage with his acoustic guitar, singing “I Thought I Saw Everything”. He’s still in need of some serious dermabrasion. Bryan is improving this medley, for sure. “I Need Somebody” closes the deal. Mini-pointy pose! Yay! Bo Bice is in the audience…
• Jordin Sparks video. She shills for the new Disney American Idol Theme park experience.
• David Cook and ZZ Top sing “Sharp Dressed Man.” It’s hard to take ZZ top seriously, but this is pretty good. Cookie sounds alright singing the Southern rock. The Topsters look exactly the same as they did 20 years ago. Blake Lewis! I think this is the first time we’ve seen Cookie play in a band. If he doesn’t win he can get COOK tattooed on his back and start a fake band.
• Throw to the Cook viewing party. Mikalah interviews Cookie’s music teacher. That was useless.
• Graham Nash and Brooke White sing “Teach Your Children Well”. It’s a bit rough. Not much time to rehearse? Brooke is her usual nervous self.
• Cookie on a Guitar Hero commercial? That’s what the chat peeps are telling me… Here’s one with Archie.
• The Jonas Brothers take the stage. The mosh pit goes wild. Sort of.
• Time for a recap of bad auditions. I’m surprised we had to wait this long. Renaldo Lapuz takes the stage in full regalia to sing “I am Your Brother.” The USC Band and cheerleaders join him. This is really weird and bad. Paula and Randy take the stage to join them. Simon stays put, wisely. Cut to commercial with a confused Renaldo, still trying to sing.
• One Republic sings their giant mega hit “Apologize.” David Archuleta joins them on stage. This is actually a pretty good match. Archie, stop squinting! David stays on stage as Ryan cuts to Utah, where his grandfathers are interviewed by Matt. His mom’s dad doesn’t really speak English. You can’t hear anything anyway over the screaming crowd.
• Jordin Sparks takes the stage in a shiny gold dress to sing her new single, “One Step at a Time”. She’s very peppy!
• Gladys Knight circa 1972 singing “Midnight Train to Georgia” with Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Robert Downy Jr. cut in as Pips. Cute. I’m glad none of this involves dead people.
• Carrie Underwood performs her new single “Last Name” I couldn’t even tell you what she’s wearing. Too busy trying to keep the site up! I’m winning. At the moment. ETA: Carrie forgot her pants!
• Time for a George Michael medley for the Top 12. The girls sing “Faith” the boys sing “Father Figure” Hearing the guys sing “naked naked” is pretty funny. It makes David Hernandez giggle. I love watching Jason Castro galloping across the stage. The kids sing “Freedom” and then introduce the “biggest star in the world, ” George Michael. He’s got sunglasses on. He’s singing “Praying for Time” in a much lower key than I’ve ever heard. He seems to be having trouble hearing through his ear monitor. He doesn’t sound like himself. Paulers crying! OMG, two shot with a crying Paula. There’s a screen with a big molten hot lava bomb behind him. An ode to Randy? Oh, he has a cold. That’s why he sounds like crap.
• Time for the results. The Davids stand center stage looking really nervous. Randy tells them he’s so happy it’s the two of them standing there…it’s been one of the strongest years ever… and they are both winners. Paula tells them it’s the start of their careers. Simon is smiling. He says, “I want to congratulate both of you last night, because on the night I thought it was a terrific show, I went back home to watch it, it wasn’t quite so clear cut as we called it…In fact, David, I will take this opportunity to apologize to you, because I was verging on disrespect last night.” Holy f*ck, Simon just apologized to Cookie! Major backtracking here, people. He congratulates them both and says that he appreciates that they were “triers.” He claims he doesn’t care who wins, he thinks they both did terrific.
• Calling the winner. Telescope dude presents the results. Ryan says they are both fantastic guys. Archie looks less nervous than Cookie. He’s grinning. Cookie has his eyes closed… Ryan begins…the winner of American Idol 2008 by more than 12 million votes is…David Cook!!! The Davids hug for a long time. Archie smiles. Very sweet. Cookie gives him his props. Shots of the family…Cookie Mom and fam are ecstatic. Daddy Archuleta is gracious, Mom is smiling. Simon is grinning from ear to ear. “Give it up for David Archuleta!” says Cookie as Archie joins the rest of the cast off-stage. Cookie begins to cry. “I started this season much to Simon’s chagrin as the word nerd…I’m at a loss for words…” Cookie’s mom and brother Andrew join him on stage and he cries some more. He hugs Andrew and says, “This is all your fault.” And, “This is amazing, thank you.” The Top 12 join him on stage to sing the winning coronation song, “Time of My Life” The song sucks. He’s “looking for that magic rainbow and finding my wings”–but what the hell! It’s a f*cking coronation!! Paula is crying. Cookie gives Archie a big hug. Brother Andrew is crying. Cookie walks out into the audience and on to the catwalk. He motions for the Top 12 to join him. He’s got his arm around a still grinning Archie. Fireworks! The confetti flies!!! Cookie puts his face into his hands, overwhelmed. That’s my brother! Andrew mouths into the camera. The camera cuts away. American Idol 2008. It is done.