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This being the results show of Motown Night, the Idols sang a montage of Motown hits against a backdrop of classic Motown stars. Very nice. I also liked the Ford commercial, with the contestants putting together giant puzzle pieces while singing "Take Me Away." They look like they're having a blast.

Then the Velvet Teddy Bear Ruben Studdard sang a tune, and Ryan mentions that he was recently married. Congrats to Ruben!

And then the countdown begins with Adam Lambert up first. I can't imagine that he'd be going home, and sure enough, he's safe. With his ability to show such vastly different sides of his artistic talent, Adam has launched himself straight to the top of my favorites list.

Welcome to the final installment of "AI Aftermath," where we explore Idol's past. Each installment, as one more American Idol hopeful is eliminated from the competition, we take a look back at contestants past who were eliminated at the same point. We'll examine how they did on the show and what they've been up to since their eliminations. In honor of David Cook's crowning as your American Idol, we will look back at other winners.

This week: The Winners, featuring Kelly Clarkson (Season One), Ruben Studdard (Season Two), Fantasia Barrino (Season Three), Carrie Underwood (Season Four), Taylor Hicks (Season Five) and Jordin Sparks (Season Six).

Going into last night's finale of American Idol, I was very excited to see the Davids battle each other for the title. It was the first American Idol in a while that did not have an obvious winner at the outset. Even though it really was David Archuleta's night, I still hold out hope that David Cook might pull out a win. He's the one with the most potential and is the better performer. Little Archuleta has that killer voice, though.

Anyway, last night's epic battle got me thinking about past American Idol finales and whether any of them were this much of a contest. It seems like we've gone into most of the American Idol finales with obvious winners. Here's a breakdown of the past American Idol finales, and whether they stack up to last night's performances:

How much cooler would it be to send your stalker letter to Kelly Clarkson with a Kelly Clarkson stamp? As Ryan Seacrest announced on last night's American Idol "Idol Gives Back" special, PhotoStamps has inked a deal with the show to produce commemorative stamps featuring the likenesses of each of the Idol winners so far, including this year's winner. In fact, Kelly Clarkson's PhotoStamp is already available, with subsequent stamps released each Tuesday.

So if you're planning to kidnap one of Kelly's hats and send her a ransom note with cut-out letters from various newspaper articles about her, demanding that she go out on a date with you if she ever wants to see it again, go that extra mile and show her you really care in that extra-special creepy way by using a Kelly Clarkson PhotoStamp! Remember, net proceeds from the sales of these stamps go to charity. And while you may be crazy, that doesn't mean you don't care!

In the wake of disappointing sales on his recent efforts, it looks like J Records has dropped Ruben Studdard from their label, according to ContactMusic.com. The second season winner of American Idol was never able to replicate the sales of his freshmen effort (2003's Soulful), which moved more than 1.7 million copies. His most recent album, 2006's The Return, in which he came back to a more traditional R&B style only shifted 325,000.

Studdard won't let this slow him down, though. Rather, he's going to follow many an Idol alumni before him to the stage. He'll play Fats Waller in a touring production of Ain't Misbehavin'. And he's guaranteed at least one gig a year on the Idol finales. I have to figure some smaller label will pick him up at some point. Maybe he can have a Jennifer Hudson career moment (Dreamgirls' "And I Am Telling You...") and become relevant again. Or is he just old news?

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Miss USA will continue her reign - from rehab.
  
• Ruben Studdard wants to help Alabama lose weight.
  
• Michael Jackson participating in a reality show? He really needs the money.
  

The video's embedded after the jump below, or you can download the file directly (Quicktime required). You can also subscribe to this vodcast via our feed.

Ruben Studdard is at the helm of a statewide effort to encourage people in Alabama to lose weight. Ruben, who won American Idol in 2003, lost more than 100 pounds when he began a weight loss program last summer. He is asking 25 percent of Alabamans to lose 10 pounds in eight weeks. Studdard's weight loss program, called Scale Back Alabama, kicks off January 4th. Alabama is ranked as the "heaviest state" in the nation with 28.4 percent obesity.

Ruben says he was motivated to lose weight because of a family history of diabetes and heart trouble. He did it in a very extreme way, though. He went to Duke Diet & Fitness center for a month to learn how to become a healthy eater. His mentor for weight loss has been Idol judge Randy Jackson.

So, this is where Ruben Studdard has been! He's fighting for his money in court. Poor fella. He had to sue his former manager, Ronald W. Edwards and Sez Inc. for taking his money. Studdard, who won the second season of American Idol, claimed that Edwards improperly used $246,000 of his money. And when I say 'improperly', I mean Edwards used Ruben's money to pay off a personal $10,000 bank loan. Not cool, man.

An Alabama judge agreed that Ruben had been screwed over by his former manager and ordered the guy to pay $2 million-- $500,000 for actual losses and $1.5 million for punitive damages. The mis-use of his income hit his credit hard, making it impossible for Ruben to even buy a house! Unfortunately, it looks like Ruben might not get the money back because Edwards filed for bankruptcy last year.

Fame. She's a bitch.

Holy smokes. FOX is back on top now that American Idol is back on the air. More than 35 million people watched Tuesday's two-hour season premiere. That's the biggest season premiere yet for the talent show, and the competition hasn't even begun! That number is darn close to Idol's highest ratings ever, when 38 million people watched the final results show between Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard. No wonder the rest of the networks waited to hear FOX's Idol plans before scheduling their Winter/Spring programming.

While there may be a heck of a lot of American Idol fans in this country, there are even more football fans out there. American Idol's season premiere comes in as the #2 most-watched show during the 2005-2006 television season. Number one is the Rose Bowl college championship, which drew 35.6 million viewers earlier this month.