‘American Idol’: One Fine David It took 4 months, 42 episodes, 24 semifinalists, 3 intermittently infuriating judges, a small army of Swaybots, a handful of botched lyrics, 97.5 million votes, and one particularly soul-crushing bit of promotion on behalf of Mike Myers’ latest (alleged) comedy, but American Idol’s seventh season has finally come to an end. Entertainment Weekly Cook’s victory shows ‘Idol’ judges don’t get it Simon Cowell said on Tuesday night that David Archuleta had scored a knockout victory in the “American Idol” finale. Instead, the voters scored a TKO of their own, punching out the opinion of the “Idol” judges. David Cook was crowned the winner of “Idol” on Wednesday, and it wasn’t a nail-biter. Ryan Seacrest called the final margin of 56 percent to 44 percent a significant amount when it comes from a total of 97.5 million ballots. What had been seen as the closest competition in ages wound up being what appears to be the biggest rout ever, with Cook winning by 12 million votes. MSNBC ‘American Idol’ Champ David Cook On His Big Win: ‘Tonight Was Just About Exhaling’ ‘An apology from Simon is a pretty rare gem,’ Cook says of judge’s unexpected mea culpa. LOS ANGELES — That certain rocker dude from season five (we’re looking at you, Daughtry) might not have been able to nab the “American Idol” title, but on Wednesday night (May 21), America made up for its past mistakes. MTV Read more »

AOL’s Popeater blog has the premiere of David Cook’s coronation song “The Time of My Life”. You know. It’s a coronation song. Dreams and magic rainbows abound. He also rises from the ashes and finds his wings. The production is super cheesy. Cookie gives it his all. What a trouper. He’ll have to sing it on tour, but I expect he’ll abandon it as soon as he can. You can listen here: “Time of My Life”  

Ryan Seacrest says there were 97.5M votes last night.

• 56% - The Winner
• 44% - Runner up

• Mikalah Gordon is in Missouri, David Cook’s Hometown party. Matt Rogers is in Utah for David Archuleta’s Hometown party.

• The Top 12 and the So 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 “My 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 sucks. They’re working in a preview of Mike Meyers new movie.  The Davids went to a screening.  Then they got to pal around with Mike Meyers in character…  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?

Tonight was the culmination of months of eliminations. The Davids finally faced off against one another. Fox did some, um, interesting things production-wise. Like the whole night had a boxing theme— complete with boxing commentary. Why? I have no idea. I found it distracting more than entertaining. Then there was the clever camera work to disguise that David Archuleta still hasn’t gotten over squinting his way through songs in spite of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s best efforts to break him of the habit. They simply hardly showed him in close-up. As a matter of fact, many of the shots of him were of his back. I do have to admit it was a lot less annoying that way. The coin flip last week went to David Archuleta, who chose to sing second (smart call). Both singers’ first songs were chosen by Clive Davis. David Cook was given “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and David Archuleta was given “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. I thought both did a decent job. David Cook added in a little flair, but you really don’t want to mess with the U2 classic too much. Clive Davis really did right by David Archuleta, choosing a song that already has a lot of the runs and drawn out notes that he likes. Because they were already written into the song, David didn’t feel the need to overdo the song. The second songs were from the song writing competition. Unlike previous years when both singers have been saddled with singing the same song, no matter whether it suits them both or not, this year the Davids were allowed to choose their own songs from the top ten vote getters. David C. chose an upbeat number that I thought was a little “pop” for him but still at least entertaining. David A. chose a sappy ballad— exactly the kind of song that the producers would usually choose for the finalists to sing. Exactly the kind of song I really don’t enjoy. Simon thought it was more in keeping with the tone of the night. Really? Given the boxing them, wouldn’t that be “Eye of the Tiger”? The final song of the evening was contestants’ choice. David C. chose to tackle a new song— Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”. It was good, more of a sensitive low-key performance from him. Simon thought he should have returned to “Hello” or “Billie Jean”, but he said he preferred to show progression by singing a new song, rather than something he’d sung before. David A. chose to sing my favorite song of the year (not really) “Imagine”. Frankly, I was talking on the phone during the performance, so I’m not absolutely sure whether it was better or worse, but I think it was about the same. Since I thought it was hideously oversung to begin with, his comments about giving it more sent shivers down my spine. So, that was it. As expected, the judges favored David Archuleta. Randy said he was exactly what “American Idol” is about. And he’s right. American Idol is about turning out a very mainstream pop singer. David Archuleta will be perfect for that. I had to keep reminding myself, though, that I don’t want David Cook to win because it’s in his best interest to come in second. Still, part of me can’t help but wish… What about you? Who was your favorite tonight?

Click link for Video…

• David Cook’s first audition
• David Archuleta’s first audition
• Michael Buffer intro
• Boxing style montage

First song: Clive Davis Pick

• David Cook - “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2
• David Archuleta - “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” by Elton John

Second Song Songwriters Contest

• David Cook - “Dream Big”
• David Archuleta - “In This Moment”

Third Song Personal Choice

• David Cook - “The World I Know” by Collective Soul
• David Archuleta - “Imagine” by John Lennon