LOS ANGELES(AP)
The grown-up rocker triumphed over the smooth-voiced kid as
David Cook claimed the "American Idol" title Wednesday,
and it wasn't as much of a surprise as it seemed.
While the judges all but crowned 17-year-old David Archuleta the
night before, the voters decided otherwise _ and in a huge and
unexpected way. Host Ryan Seacrest said before the results that
that the margin was 12 million votes, and it turns out they broke
in the favor of the 25-year-old from Blue Springs, Mo.
Cook was overcome with emotion, bending toward the stage after
his name was announced. When he stood up, his eyes were filled with
tears, the second time in as many nights that the scruffy,
grainy-voiced belter had broken down.
"This is amazing," he said. "This is all your
fault," he added, addressing his brother, Andrew. The story
goes that Cook was only tagging along with his sibling to the
"Idol" auditions to lend support, and wound up getting on
the show.
To close out the show's sevent season, Cook immediately took
the microphone and began to sing "Time of my Life," a
midtempo rocker by Nashville singer/songwriter Regie Hamm, winner
of the annual "Idol" songwriting competition.
Cook refused to bow to the conventional during his three-song
set Tuesday, with Collective Soul's "The World I
Know" as his pick for a closing performance. He also sang
U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking
For" and the power ballad "Dream Big," his choice
from the songwriting competition's non-winning finalists.
"If I had to choose between playing a song that not a whole
lot of people know that I could get behind, or the opposite,
I'll choose the lesser-known every time," Cook told The
Associated Press backstage Tuesday.
Judge Simon Cowell declared at the time that the song choices
had sunk him, and told Archuleta that he'd scored a
"knockout" in the boxing-themed performance finale.
But just before the winner was announced, Cowell
uncharacteristically backtracked. He offered Cook an apology and
said that the competition "wasn't quite so clear cut as we
called it" _ even letting on that, for the first time, he felt
either finalist would have been a worthy winner.
While "Idol" ratings were down all season, the final
contest turned that tide, with with viewership for Tuesday's
show up 3 percent over last year's performance finale, the
network said Wednesday. That provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5
million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year's
total vote count was 74 million.
Early in the show, host Ryan Seacrest played it coy, announcing
that the split between the two contestants was 56 percent for one
David, 44 percent for the other. Of course he left in question who
got the lion's share; that detail wouldn't come until the
closing moments of season seven.
While Archuleta was showered with praise by the judges all
season, online bookies and observers kept the faith with Cook. One
Web site, which tracks busy signals on the separate phone lines
dedicated to each contestant, projected him the winner correctly
Wednesday morning.
By strict "Idol" standards, being rebellious turned
out to be worth the gamble for Cook, whose hip and scruffy style
and ability to work the camera with a soulful gaze also proved to
have overwhelming appeal.
Archuleta, of Murray, Utah, was the prodigy who consistently
dazzled the show's judges and thrilled screaming young fans. He
would have been the youngest-"Idol" ever if he'd won,
beating last year's winner Jordin Sparks by mere days.
The teenager seemed to find the attention the show brought him
overwhelming, often appearing to be speechless in the face of
praise, but he was consistently professional onstage, with dulcet
tones and poise that belied his shyness and tender age. He also
became the focus of controversy when his father, Jeff, was
reportedly getting too heavily involved in his son's rehearsals
and asked by the show's producers to back off.
Archuleta made the most of his smooth voice Tuesday with Elton
John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," the
inspirational ballad "In This Moment" and a reprise from
earlier in the season of John Lennon's "Imagine."
Judge Randy Jackson exclaimed to Archuleta, "Dude, you are
so good tonight. You are exactly what this show is about." And
Cowell told the teenager: "You came out here tonight to win,
and what we have witnessed is a knockout."
"I felt I had a disadvantage getting so much attention in
the beginning. But winning isn't the big concern. It's
always doing your best. ... That's what's important,"
he told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.
During the show, viewers got songs from runners-up including
Syesha Mercado, who dueted with Seal on his song "Waiting for
You," and a solo on "Hallelujah" by dreadlocked
Jason Castro.
Other "Idol" contestant and name-brand pairings: Cook
with ZZ Top, Archuleta with OneRepublic, Bryan Adams with the top
six male singers and Brooke White with Graham Nash.
"Brooke looks so much better than Crosby," Nash
quipped backstage, referring to bandmate David Crosby.
The Jonas Brothers got the stage to themselves for a
performance.
"American Idol" also celebrated the awfulness that is
part of the show, usually confined to the early auditions, with a
performance by failed contestant Reynaldo Lapuz that threw in
University of Southern California cheerleaders and marching band
members.
In Utah, Archuleta fans gathered to watch the finale took the
loss like a collective kick. Mouths dropped, eyes widened and
several teenage girls hugged and cried at a live viewing party at
EnergySolutions arena in Salt Lake City.
"Did you feel that?" said Skippy Jessop, 30, his
homemade sign now headed for the trash bin. "It felt like a
punch in the gut. We all just stood there with our mouths hanging
open."
But fans say this won't be the last note from Utah's
newest favorite son.
"He's still a winner for sure," said Cecily
Estrada, 19, who attended Murray High School with Archuleta.
"He's gonna be big no matter what."
He's already scored one big endorsement: Toward the end of
the live, two-hour broadcast, Archuleta was featured in a
"Guitar Hero" commercial in which he reprised Tom
Cruise's lip-sync routine from the movie "Risky
Business." Instead of an air guitar, Archuleta played the
small, plastic replica instrument from the popular video game.
But on Wednesday, it was the real guitarist who struck the
biggest power chord.
___
AP entertainment writer Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles and AP
writer Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City contributed to this
report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.