‘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?

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

• Simon thinks it will come down to song choice, and for that reason, David Cook will win.
• He explains that he wouldn’t have said that 9 or 10 weeks ago, but that over the weeks, Cookie had two or 3 performances that were “staggeringly” good, while Archie sorta flat lined.
• Simon doesn’t think Archie has the personality to be the American Idol. He thinks he would struggle a bit on the interview. Simon thinks he’s been “trained to do this over a period of time” and that he really hasn’t experienced life.
• Simon has seen worse stage parents on Idol. He said he had “mothers practically attacking him after the show.” He says Jeff needs to relax a bit.