- After more than 97.5 million votes were tallied, America crowned David Cook the seventh American Idol with 56 percent of the vote. Celebrity performers included The Jonas Brothers, OneRepublic, Donna Summer, Seal, Graham Nash and George Michael.
- "American Idol" - Season 7 Finale - May 21, 2008
The Davids Archuleta and Cook, clad in white, are standing in a circle of light as Seacrest blathers on about a nation gripped by the extraordinary battle between these two competitors. He then welcomes us to the "Idol" season finale.
In the audience: Holly Robinson Peete; New "90210" star Lori Loughlin; Ruben Studdard; Janice Dickinson; Teri Hatcher; Melinda Dolittle; Marissa Jaret Winokur; Jeri Ryan; Sanjaya Malakar; Bo Bice; Blake Lewis; Tia (or is Tamera?) Mowry; Justin Guarini who got the seat next to Seal's wife Heidi Klum; Camryn Manheim; Ashley Tisdale
Seacrest says the votes were unbelievable: 97 ½ million votes came in, smashing the record by 23 million. One David received 56 percent, the other 44. He introduces the judges. Randy and Paula are wearing Coca-Cola red.
Mikalah Gordon- the Fran Drescher soundalike from Season 4, who looks great!- is in Kansas City with Cook fans. Matt Rogers - Season 3 - is in Utah with Team Archuleta. Both places? Very excited.
Group Sing: The top 12, surrounded by the cast of "So You Think You Can Dance," getting down to "Get Ready" by the Temptations. Everybody's wearing white as they swing their hands side to side even Amanda Overmeyer. Jason Castro is grinning like a fool. Remember this when considering that purchase of "Idols Live" concert tickets. Just saying.
Performance: David Cook comes out in black leather singing "Hero" by Nickelback and Josey Scott from Saliva and Archuleta joins him and they even try a little harmony, and it doesn't sound bad at all. It hits both their sweet spots: power ballad and meat-and-potatoes dude rock. They both look a lot more relaxed.
Seacrest comes out and talks about the various mentors over the season and asks if they remember that great guru "Pitka."
Video Package: We go to a commercial for the forthcoming, and presumably Fox-related, Mike Myers comedy "The Love Guru." (Wow, it's actually Paramount). We then see the boys take in a screening. They laugh and talk about their favorite scenes. They go and meet the guru who's rocking out "Smoke on the Water" on "Sitar Hero." He claims to have been a mentor on "Idol" since the beginning. He calls Cook's beard '90s and says that Archuleta will soon find hair in strange places. They laugh, the Nokia audience is being encouraged to laugh hard. They talk about his advice and Myers/Pitka reappears with shaving cream which he smears on Cook's face and pretends to shave. Apparently, Cook thinks this is uproarious. Or he has a future in the talkies. It's all a little amusing but mostly painful.
Myers as Pitka comes out on stage on a moving cushion. He calls Randy his dawg. He tells Paula he loves her. He tells Simon he loves him even more. Seacrest asks for a prediction. He predicts the winner will be a U.S. citizen, 16-28 years of age, not an employee of Fox television, and that his name will be David. High-larious. He also predicts that he will shamelessly promote his movie. Eek.
Performance: Seacrest takes a ride on the cushion while introducing Syesha Mercado singing "Waiting For You" by Seal, who appears to sing it with her. Its Seal-esha! They make a cute couple and they sound pretty good, even though the song is pitched a little low for Syesha and occasionally a little high for Seal himself.
Performance: Jason Castro returns to reprise "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen by way of Jeff Buckley. It seems slower and a little more syrupy this time. The strings maybe? Melinda Doolittle approves.
Ford Commercial: Instead of the two Davids we get outtakes from the full season of commercials to the tune of "Let the Good Times Roll." (Not the Cars song, but the old soul song).
Seacrest gets the boys center stage and shows them their two new Ford Hybrids and hands them the keys. They're excited.
Performance: It's a Donna Summer medley by the ladies including "She Works Hard For the Money," "Hot Stuff," and a bit of "Bad Girls." If you kept your eye on Amanda and Brooke only you were mightily entertained. Brooke is just incredibly awkward and Amanda does not look happy. The magnificent Miss Donna herself shows up to sing her new single "Stamp Your Feet" from her forthcoming album "Crayons." (Her first in 17 years!) She sounds great, looks a little thick, but for 59 damn impressive. The "SYTYCD" kids are back doing head spins and other nifty acrobatic stuff, which Ryan "comically" tries to stay out of the way of. Miss D segues into "Last Dance" and blows all these kids away. Syesha gets a featured spot and she looks like she's having fun, but Donna kills it.
Performance: "The Letter" by the Box Tops. (Yeah, Alex Chilton!) sung by Carly Smithson and Michael Johns. Carly looks sassy but David looks like he's wearing an oversized tux jacket. (I think a Foreigner song would've been a more cheeky choice). Carly overdoes it but sounds alright, they're having fun anyway.
Jimmy Kimmel comes on to give a review of the season. He says he just valet parked and wants to know how much to tip Sanjaya, who is in the audience for a reaction shot. He ribs the judges. We get a clip package of Simon's one word criticisms set to music.
Performance: Wow, Michael Johns is getting a lot of love tonight as he kicks off the group guy sing of Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" with David Hernandez, Chikezie, and Castro. The Davids come out to sing "Heaven." And, surprise, it's Bryan Adams! He's looking fit (he's 49) but a little confused and sounding kinda pitchy, singing his new song "I Thought I'd Seen Everything ('Til I Saw You)." That segues into "I Need Somebody" on which the boys rejoin him. Bo Bice approves.
Video Package: Current "Idol" Jordin Sparks is at Disney World pimping the "American Idol Experience" ride (?) at the theme park, coming in January.
Performance: David Cook and ZZ Top perform their hit 'Sharp Dressed Man." The beards are looking good, David is apparently going to sing the whole thing. He's also playing electric guitar. Billy Gibbons at least gets the solo. Paula and Randy are digging it.
Performance: Brooke White and Graham Nash (a silvery 66) strumming acoustic guitars team up for Crosby, Stills and His' "Teach Your Children." The nanny is barefoot and kinda killing it. Graham sounds pretty good too, especially since this is such a naked one.
Performance: The Jonas Brothers, pointedly with no "Idol" accompaniment, sing their kicky power pop hit "S.O.S." The girls go wild. Especially the very little ones.
Video Package: The horrible audition recap clips. One of the horrible singers Renaldo LaPuz comes to further embarrass himself by singing on the stage. The USC marching band and cheerleaders join him. Oy. Seriously, this has to be two hours?????
Performance: OneRepublic sing their song "Apologize." Like the song, the performance is kind of a yawn. Archuleta comes out to join them. He sounds nice enough but the song is just so limp. Archuleta closes his eyes with relaxed abandon.
Performance: Sparks singing her new single "One Step at a Time." It's very cute and she sounds pretty impressive considering her recent vocal cord issues. The baggy gold lame dress she's wearing is incredibly unflattering though. Blake Lewis knows all the words!
Video Clip: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. are spliced into an old clip of Gladys Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia." They're playing the Pips complete with polyesther suits and dance moves. It's funny but doing the whole song makes it go on too long. The trio is ostensibly promoting their upcoming comedy "Tropic Thunder." (A Dreamworks product).
Performance: Carrie Underwood sings her latest single "Last Name." Clad in a cream jacket with a groovy lace train connecting her sleeves that shows off her legs, the former "Idol" victor rocks out her song about waking up married. She has improved by leaps and bounds as a performer since her time as a competitor. It's sassy but also offers ample big note moments.
Performance: The Top 12 sing a medley of George Michael songs. The ladies handle "Faith" while the boys tackle "Father Figure." It's kind of funny when Hernandez gets the "bold and naked" lyric, plus he whispers "naked." Hee. Then they all join together for "Freedom '90."
Performance: George Michael sings his elegant lament "Praying For Time," which Carrie Underwood sang on "Idol Gives Back." He sounds pretty good but also as if he doesn't have enough breath support. At the song's conclusion he pimps his tour and promises to be over his cold when he starts. (Phew, if he sounded that good sick his shows should be safe).
Final Thoughts From the Judges: Randy thought it was a great season, he's glad the Davids are standing there, they're both winners. Paula is proud and says it's not a final moment it's a beginning. Simon wants to congratulate both of them and watching back last night's show it wasn't quite so clear-cut a winner as he thought. He also apologizes to David Cook for saying his comments verged on disrespectful. He calls them "try-ers." For the first time ever he doesn't care who wins, he thinks they're both lovely people and did very well.
Your "American Idol" is: David Cook (by a margin of 12 million votes). Cook hugs Archuleta, and Archuleta's family graciously applauds as does Cook himself. The moment hits him and Cook understandably breaks down, crying and walking toward the back of the stage. It's very touching.
Seacrest tells him to address the crowd. Cook says he started the season much to Simon's chagrin as the "word nerd" and now he's speechless. "This is amazing, thank you." He hugs his mom and little brother and says to him "this is all your fault."
Final Performance: Cook sings the winning song "Time of My Life" which is not one of the ones we heard last night.
It's a swinging, soaring waltz-time ballad that includes a "magic rainbow on the horizon." In other words, it's a typical coronation moment song but much, much better than "This is My Now." The rest of the top twelve looks on. He's composed himself well and sings superbly. He's clearly really happy and relieved. He hugs Archuleta and goes out to the platform behind the judges' stools. Archuleta - who obviously had to learn the song also- is singing along. If he's devastated it's not obvious. He also seems legitimately relieved and has control of his composure. All the "Idols" join Cook on the platform. As this tableau reminds us, if nothing else this really was a collegial season. It may have not been the best group of singers ever or the most exciting competition but the kids' seemed to genuinely like each other. Cue the sparklers and confetti as David hits the big money note at the end. It's a surprisingly assured performance considering the stress of the moment. His little brother looks into the camera mouthing the words "That's my brother." Nicely done.
See y'all next year.
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