(S06E41) I am exhausted, truly exhausted. TV should be relaxing. But American Idol's two hour event shows are emotionally-draining. They wear me out. And tonight's show was especially BIG. I'm surprised Ryan didn't call it the "biggest show ever." It actually ran over 2 hours by about eight minutes.But everything between 8:00 and 10:05 was just filler or commercials. We came here tonight to crown the next American Idol. The judges give their final thoughts. Randy says, "It's Jordin, baby." Paula is just proud of everyone. She congratulates them both. Simon congratulates Jordin (his pick based on the last song Tuesday night).
74 million votes were cast Tuesday night (for a combined total of 609 million votes cast over the season) and this year's American Idol is ...
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JORDIN SPARKS!!!!
Wow, I didn't think this would be an emotional moment, but it is. Paula cries (of course). But then my son starts crying, which makes me start crying. This has been such a long journey for Blake, Jordin and ME. After 41 episodes and over 43 hours of Idol-mania, I am spent. I'm crying from exhaustion, but I'm also giddy and relieved that it's finally over. My Tuesdays and Wednesdays are free again! Hey, now what the heck am I going to do on Tuesday and Wednesday nights?
Oh yeah, I'm also happy that Jordin won. She deserves it. And Blake will go on to be successful too. He just won't have to record that cheesy ballad "This Is My Now."
That's it, folks. Another season is over. The winner is Jordin.
Now here's what else happened tonight:
JORDIN and BLAKE come out together to sing "I Saw Her Standing There." It's another overly-cutesy Idol moment. They're supposed to be singing to each other, and they even hold hands. But they don't really make sweet music together.
GWEN STEFANI is on tour, and she sings "4 in the Morning." Hey, I just saw Gwen in concert last weekend with my daughter and her friends. This was one of those slow songs that bored the crowd. I actually like Gwen's voice a lot on the slower songs, but after Akon rocked the house, the crowd wanted the party to continue. They wanted dance tunes like "Sweet Escape" or "Hollaback Girl" and not ballads.
KELLY CLARKSON is up next, singing "Never Again" from her new album. At least she's lost the muumuu she wore at the Idol Gives Back concert, and is dressed in a black mini with thigh high boots. I like her hair pulled back, she looks pretty. But she's shouting a little, and I can imagine Gina Glocksen singing this song.
THE TOP SIX GUYS (Sanjaya, Chris R., Phil, Chris Sligh, Brandon, and Blake) perform " Ooo Baby, Baby" while dressed in matching white suits. Phil sounds the best, but Brandon still looks the best. Smokey Robinson comes out to sing "Being With You." The six guys are not great at providing background vocals for Smokey. Then all six sing "Tears of a Clown" joined by Smokey.
BLAKE gets to beatbox tonight with Barry B and Doug E. Fresh. It's not my thing, dawg. It sounds like a lot of yelling to me. And how many times must they say the name "Doug E. Fresh?" But at least they show some energy, which is nice.
TONY BENNETT is back to finally perform. He sings "For Once in My Life." Simon stands, and claps for the legend, but he doesn't look ecstatic. I guess the Idol producers aren't too mad that Tony called the show cruel. Honestly, Tony sounds great, but it's a little too old school for me. However, just when I think he's going to give us a snoozer, he steps it up a notch, and pulls off a big, Big, BIG finish. Forget Jordin or Blake -- Tony is the NEXT American Idol.
MELINDA DOOLITTLE is back too. She used to sing backup for BeBe & CeCe WINANS but tonight she's their equal. They sing "Hold Up the Light." And I think Melinda blows them away. And she looks hot too, dressed in some slinky, sexy gown.
THE FORD COMMERCIAL features the song "Time After Time" and outtakes from all the other videos. Afterwards, Jordin and Blake are handed keys to their brand new Mustangs. Sweet!
CARRIE UNDERWOOD sings "I'll Stand By You" which she sang in the Idol Gives Back video. She's wearing half a prom dress with jeans. She sounds good and I really like this song, but I wish we were hearing something new.
THE TOP SIX GIRLS (Gina, Stephanie, Haley, LaKisha, Melinda, and Jordin) are all dressed in slinky white outfits. They sing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." Gladys Knight comes out and sings "I Feel a Song in My Heart." She looks and sounds great. Then she sings "Midnight Train to Georgia" and we finally get to hear Melinda and LaKisha sing next to the great Gladys.
CLIVE DAVIS: He's all like "Yeah, yeah Kat McPhee and Taylor Hicks are okay" but Daughtry is "da man" selling over 2.5 million albums. Clive thanks the judges for discovering such wonderful talent (like J. Hud). Then he presents an award to Carrie Underwood. She thanks everyone on American Idol, and says what I'm thinking -- "Let's get back to the show and the winner." Right on, Carrie.
THE AFRICAN CHILDREN'S CHOIR performs so that we can "recapture the atmosphere of Idol Gives Back," according to Ryan. The kids are really cute and talented. Forget Jordin, Blake or Tony. The African Children's Choir should be the next American Idols!
SANJAYA MALAKAR. What would the finale be without a little Sanjaya-hype? Sanjaya gets a pre-recorded tongue-in-cheek intro about "great men who shape our future." Sanj sings "Girl You Really Got Me Now" while Joe Perry from Aerosmith plays guitar. Sanjaya sounds bad, maybe worse than the first time he maimed this song. The Crying Girl is in the audience! And Joe Perry sounds awesome.
GREEN DAY performs John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" while the words "end the killing" flash on a screen behind them. Wow, that's depressing. If someone had told me Green Day was performing I would have been excited, but the performance is so damn depressing. My question is why do all the contemporary artists (like Gwen and Green Day) sing really slow, boring, depressing songs? The kids want to hear them rock! Heck, I want to hear them rock!
TAYLOR HICKS! We're back from commercial and Taylor comes out without ANY intro. He sings "Heaven Knows." He's skinnier, but has the same gray hair, and is still bopping around like a goof. He's Taylor Hicks and I love him! He plays the harmonica too! I don't care what people say, Taylor knows how to get the crowd going. And that's why we voted for him last year. Sadly, Taylor disappears off the stage just as suddenly as he appeared. You would think they would take a couple of minutes to talk to last year's Idol and ask him about the crazy year he has had.
JORDIN sings her duet with season two winner RUBEN STUDDARD. They sing "You're All I Need to Get By." Jordin has some trouble with the low register, but Ruben sounds awesome. And he looks skinnier too. I like seeing the past Idols come back and sing. They should really do it more often.
BETTE MIDLER. I love Bette, but does she have to sing the cheesiest song in her repertoire. Seriously, "The Wind Beneath My Wings?" And how skinny is Bette? And when did she start looking like a cross between Barbara Eden and Kathy Griffin? And why are Paula and Randy slow dancing together? Why does Jerry Springer look like he's going to "pull a Hasselhoff "and cry? You don't have to answer any of those questions.
AMERICAN IDOL'S TRIBUTE TO SGT. PEPPER: So that's why Randy was wearing the Sgt. Pepper jacket last night. As soon as the medley begins, I predict that the final song will be "With a Little Help From My Friends." Kelly Clarkson sings "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" while Joe Perry once again plays guitar. Did she forget the words? Taylor Hicks sings "A Day In The Life." Carrie Underwood shows lots of legs while singing "She's Leaving Home." Ruben sings "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." And for the grand finale, our Top 12 sing "With a Little Help From My Friends." See I told you. Of course, as the medley began, I also predicted that Paul McCartney WOULD show up despite the denials (like Prince did last year). But alas, he DOES NOT. There is no big name to close out the finale this year.
THE 2ND ANNUAL GOLDEN IDOLS was a cute bit that would have been funny, if the joke didn't drag on so long. It was fun to revisit some of the crazies from the early audition shows, but when Margaret "Big Bird" Fowler went up on stage to accept her award, I was hoping Ryan would cut her time short. Yes, it was funny the way she kissed Ryan. But I really didn't need to hear her read a poem. And having the tone-deaf belter Sholandric Stallworth come up to sing without a microphone was just rude and unnecessary. I did, however, get a kick out of seeing Jonathan & Kenny (aka Augustus Gloop & Bush Baby) come up to accept their "Best Buddies Award." I especially like that they beat out Simon & Ryan for the award. Kenny didn't have any hard feelings and told Simon, "if you hadn't say what you said, I wouldn't be where I'm at ... I forgive you."
CELEBRITIES: There were a lot of familiar faces in the audience tonight. Here's who I spotted: Terri Hatcher, The Commish, David Alan Grier, Justin Guarini, Kelli Pickler, David Hasselhoff, Constantine, Ace Young, Jennifer Hudson, Jerry Springer, Joely Fisher, Brad Garrett, and the Crying Girl. Who else was there?
Whew, what a night. What a show. I can't believe it's actually over.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 16)
5-23-2007 @ 11:58PM
Stigmata said...
Is it just me, or does Jordin look like the female SHREK ??
hahahaha
i'm buying / downloading Blake's album! Jordin's awful.
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5-24-2007 @ 12:01AM
loser said...
Ah yes, only IDOL can bring together a gospel power balad and an LSD trip track in the same 2 hour yawnfest. No wonder ratings are down this year
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5-24-2007 @ 12:02AM
Jon said...
Um, two hours and my DVR cuts out before it's over. That's AWESOME. Seriously, someone reanimated Bette Midler and I got to see that but not who won. Gwen Steffani and Green Day both had taped performances and weeble wobble and monkey boy both talked about red carpet but I didn't get to see who won. Great job Fox.
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5-24-2007 @ 12:20AM
DeadWrong said...
Kelly Clarkson finally sang a song that didn't make me want to punch her in the face.
I liked Green Days Working Class Hero.
I wanted to give the African Childerns Choir a 30 pack to share.
Carrie Underwood is my favorite to date.
I must admidt that even thou I can't stand Ruben I do
believe he might have gotten larger.
Sanjaya still sucks.
Taylors song wasn't that bad.
I can only take so much of that beatboxing.
Congratulations to Jordin..
glad she won
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5-24-2007 @ 12:21AM
spikeprop said...
Did anyone notice that during Carrie Underwood's set, they panned the camera over to...Jerry Springer and Jeff Foxworthy?
Can you say stereotype????
Are they saying the only people who listen to Carrie and her country album are the same who enjoy these two men?
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5-24-2007 @ 12:24AM
jk said...
Only saw half the show tonight. Did anyone else living in New England have their Dvr not record? Cox Digital in RI to be more specific. We were watching the sox vs yankees game and we only got the second half of idol from clive davis on.
Anyways, I'm happy for jordin. She fits the cookie cutter Ai persona better the blake. If Blake had to do a career under the 19 mangement and sing "this is my now" on his album it would stink. Now he's free to do what he needs and jordin has an awesome career ahead. Oh and boo to sanjaya. It's 14:59 sanjaya, so enjoy your last minute....
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5-24-2007 @ 12:35AM
Jim said...
Congratulations, American Idol, for staging one of the most offensive performances imaginable: Taylor Hicks singing "A Day In The Life." Utterly reprehensible.
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5-24-2007 @ 12:36AM
Tristan said...
Jordin, my American Idol, won. She liek totally deserve that award, it was so awesome. I almost cried when she got it and sung the song. She is the only other singer (other than Haley and Melinda) who could really move me with their singing. I think Jordin won out perhaps because she really touches on the emotions of her songs, and it seems as if she is the one whom, whatever song she sings, who made the song. You know.
The African Childrens Choir was the best part of the show! They were so happy and good with their music!
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5-24-2007 @ 12:45AM
Beth said...
Stigmata are you jealous?? She is an amazing singer, beautiful and I am sure you couldn't do better.
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5-24-2007 @ 12:58AM
barry geller said...
thanks fox 5 for going over by 8 minutes so when i used my dvr, i missed the only part of the show i wanted to see---the results duh! will this air again? go jordin you are a superstar and beautiful.
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5-24-2007 @ 1:07AM
Pauline said...
Even though I knew it would be Jordin Sparks, I was still looking forward to seeing the winner and their reaction, but thanks to great TV (Fox).........the last 8 minutes didn't record on my DVR. Kinda takes the moment away. Definitely could have cut Sonjoya's time out. Jordin deserved her moment and the time, not him. Then a lot of us who recorded it would have been able to see the great finale instead of looking it up on the Internet to find out who won (and enduring Sonjoya's singing).
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5-24-2007 @ 1:09AM
former songbird said...
LOL - #2, 4 and 6!!!
Bette Midler - what were you guys thinking, AI?
I'd rather watch Maroon 5 again sing that ghastly song they did last week.
Loved the 6 guys BEFORE Smokey Robinson joined them. They sound great acapella!
And what's up with Smokey's pupil's anyway?!?
Is it just me or did Carrie sound "pitchy" in spots on her song? She seems to go sharp some - could be the ear monitor giving her feedback or just some chord plain give her trouble.
Loved the award spoofs!!!!
BeBe and CeCe Winans are AWESOME----didn't realize CeCe was so beautiful!!! Melinda was def. in her element tonight!
Blake and Doug E. Fresh - amazing! I don't even like beatboxing but I LOVE hearing Blake do it. I wish Blake could have done a little spoof with his alter ego - the country hick (can't remember the character's name). Would have been too funny!
Can't wait to see Blake on SNL!!!
(I know I should let this dead horse die but, Should've been Blake vs. Melinda...)
Clive's speech was interesting.......hmmmmmm.
The thing I will miss most about AI - Seeing Blake and Melinda perform.
Note to next year's future winner----be able to sing boring ballads very well. Don't worry about entertaining anyone - just make sure your slightly abve average voice can do wonders with a ballad!!
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5-24-2007 @ 1:14AM
karioke said...
I watched the whole thing...right until my DVR cut off the ending!!!! I wanted to watch in peace, after the kids were in bed and I missed the grand finale!! Come on and get it all together Fox or Cox or whoever has the power!! Yeah to Jordin...I'm so sorry I didn't get to see the final moment but maybe someone will make the last 8 minutes available to those of us who mistakenly put our faith in technology!!! Congrats Jordin!!
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5-24-2007 @ 1:15AM
Lester said...
How funny. I, too, was miffed about my DVR's performance, but I was prepared and set it to end five minutes over. I never imagined that there was still 3 more minutes left. But, at least I was able to catch the envelope opening, and see that Jordin and Blake were not at all surprised. They both knew how it was gonna go down, as did the rest of the world. I agree with Simon's comment in the latest issue of US magazine, that it would have been nice to have it be Melinda against Jordin, because at least there would have been an element of suspense. But come on, Blake doesn't fit the image, and that is definitely a good thing. That is not to say that Jordin isn't talented, but the judges are so full of crap when they say this is a singing competition.
THIS IS A MARKETING COMPETITION, PEOPLE. Plain and simple. And Jordin is a pretty little package, although whenever she stands next to Ryan, I keep waiting for her to snap him over her knee like a twig.
And I, for one, enjoy the beat boxing, but then again, I'm a die hard Beastie Boys fan from WAAAY back (No...sleep...til Brooklyn!).
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5-24-2007 @ 1:16AM
BigTed said...
Why did they make Sanjaya sing the worst of his songs from the season? He never sounded as bad as on this one... It seemed as if they were really playing up the campy "fake rock star" joke at his expense.
Maybe Paul McCartney didn't show up because he realized they were going to desecrate "Sgt. Pepper's." Kelly Clarkson sounded great, but the whole thing was incredibly bland.... You'd never know that this was one of the most important albums in history, full of sonic dissonance and different musical styles, or that it ushered in the psychedelic era.
We all knew Jordin would win, and it's nice to see her get so emotional.... But really, at the end, it looked as if she had been crowned Miss America rather than American Idoll.
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5-24-2007 @ 9:25AM
Carol said...
I was so disappointed in the whole show. What's with all the "stars" getting prime time to sing? I thought this was American Idol. I really thought that this season's top 12 would be spotlighted. Instead, they did backup?!? And of course, along with everyone else that TiVoed, I missed the best part, the announcement of who won. I've watched all season, waited for the winner and I missed that part.
Congratulations to Jordin AND Blake. You're both winners. Fox Broadcasting, producers, etc., thanks for ruining the best part of the show.
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5-24-2007 @ 2:00AM
Diane said...
Does anyone know if there is any where online to watch the end of this show? I too set mine to record for an extra five minutes and missed the end.
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5-24-2007 @ 2:03AM
vacelts said...
The two-hour finale of America Idol played out more like an awards show than a results show — complete with awards, acceptance speeches, guest performances, a celebrity audience and special presentations. I'm just glad that somewhere among all the pageantry, we got to see a little bit of our finalists.
http://redlightnaps.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/jordin-sparks-2007-idol/
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5-24-2007 @ 2:11AM
Jessica said...
Same problem in the Detroit area with my DVR cutting out with 20 minutes left of American Idol. And the one time I'm looking for the results of the show on CNN, the ticker is talking about missing children instead of giving me what I want! Even though I know Jordan won, does Anyone know a cite I can get the last 20 minutes of the show from? Can't find it on YOUTube..
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5-24-2007 @ 2:06AM
Tammy said...
Thanks to all of you who also shared your frustration when the DVR cut off. At least I know I'm not the only one who has a life and can't be sitting by the TV at exactly the right moment. But talk about an anticlimactic moment when my husband jumped online to tell me who won when the DVR stopped. That was crap.
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