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May 21, 2008 11:01

American Idol: David Wins!

Posted by James Poniewozik | Comments (10) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

Yeah, I know, it's a lame joke, but if professional comic Mike Myers can use it, so can I. Spoilers about which David is the 2008 American Idol coming up... after the break!

I called it! I knew it! I never doubted it even... OK, maybe I doubted it a little. Missouri's David Cook was crowned American Idol by a margin of 12 million votes. This despite the fact that his opponent, David Archuleta, was judged the prohibitive favorite by the pundits and experts before the finals even started. This despite the fact that Tuesday night, the judges, especially Simon Cowell, literally declared David A. the winner before the voting had even taken place. By design, or by accident, AI's voters decided they did not like being told by the powers that be who to vote for.

The competition among the Presidential candidates over who gets to use that as a metaphor for themselves starts... now. (Hat tip to commmenter Disenfranchised_Libertarian for pointing out the analogy—and calling it for David Cook—in an earlier thread.)

Seriously, though, what did you make of Simon's about-face before the winner was announced, actually apologizing to Cook and saying he'd been "disrespectful" to him? Did he have a word with the other producers, who reportedly wanted Cook to win? Or did he just peek at dialidol.com, which accurately predicted the Cook landslide?

As for Cook, watching him sing the godawful Idol coronation song—"Time of My Moment" or "This Is My Tomorrow" or "Today Is My Now of My Life" or whatever the songwriting program that generated it called it—gave a little insight into part of the reason why he won. Yes, the song was a piece of crap—there was a line about a "magic rainbow" in it, for God's sake. I'm sure he knew it was a piece of crap. And yet he didn't seem awkward or uncomfortable or, most important, too cool for it. He sang it straight, sang it his way, found whatever scrap of genuine emotion he could connect with in it, and thereby made it sound a little less crappy. That was Kelly Clarkson's talent, and David C. has got it.

The results show itself: I may lose my TV critic's license for saying it, but it was actually not bad this year. Yes, there were embarrassing bits, like the uncomfortable, whoring promo for The Love Guru. (And yet having Tropic Thunder stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. impersonate the Pips? Delightful.) There were a couple too many awkwardly choreographed group sings. (Oh, Amanda Overmyer, how I missed your sullen scowling!) And seriously, Idol honchos: the bucket you keep dipping into the bad-audition-singers well is officially scraping gravel.

But give Idol and its producers credit for realizing that AI is a music program and simply loading up the two hours with performances, rather than padding it with celebrity interviews and other vamping as they did in past years. They may have skewed a bit old, if Idol is at all worried about its hemorrhaging of young viewers (ZZ Top? Bryan Adams? Was Styx unavailable?), but Brooke White duetting with Graham Nash was charming, as was Syesha Mercado with Seal. Archuleta surprisingly held his own as a rocker, duetting on Nickelback's Hero with Cook. And I'm just going to come out and say it: that Jonas Brothers' song was not bad! I may actually be a 10 year old girl!

Another quibble: the show ran long again, either an unintended slight to DVR users, or a canny strategy to foil them. (Though Ryan literally managed to announce Cook as winner a second before my TiVo stopped recording.) But at least this year it was not quite as dull a slog waiting for that result. A decently entertaining American Idol finale episode? An actually deserving American Idol winner with his own musical sensibility? Maybe it really is a new day in America!

And yes, the competition among the Presidential candidates over who gets to use that as a metaphor for themselves starts... now.

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Reader Comments (10)

LB:

Captain Kangaroo called. He wants his jacket back from Randy.

I think Simon knew exactly what was about to happen, when he apologized to DC. If DavidA had been about to win by a landslide, I'm absolutely certain Simon would've stuck to insisting that "one singer clearly came out to win", and possibly even stood by his 'knockout' prediction.

When Ryan announced early that the vote was 56/44%, I was bummed cuz (being a Cook fan) I figured DavidA's posse must've gotten out the text vote (Dialidol prediction notwithstanding). No way DC could have racked up 12M more votes than the clear favorite?!

But wow. I'm glad AmIdol announced the vote totals, and that Dialidol seemed to confirm the margin, just so there's a solid result (most) no-one can question.

Whatever folks thought the two Davids' singing prowess, I think they're both good guys who each arguably deserved the title if for very different reasons. Too bad all our votes can't be so win-win.

Great points, James, about how David handled the victory song, and the (mostly) tolerable finale content. I was a bit worried after the Love Guru bit at the beginning, but the rest wasn't half bad. Actually, it was worth the Love Guru bit just to see Ryan nearly wipe out when his magic carpet ride almost launched off the stage ....

Posted by LB | May 22, 2008 1:14 AM

Mike:

true story: I DVR'd this last night and was watching it about a hour after it started with my girlfriend and playing catch up. However the show ran a little long and I didn't set my DVR to tape after 10pm, so Mr. Seafoam gets to the results and says, "the winner of American Idol Season 7 is, David.." and thats the end of my recording. what a perfect ending to my night

Posted by Mike | May 22, 2008 8:51 AM

Lora:

@Mike: The exact same thing happened to me. I already knew who had won thanks to a poorly-timed MySpace comment, so I just went on a certain video website this morning to watch the actual announcement and Cook's (very moving, I might add) reaction to his victory.

Posted by Lora | May 22, 2008 10:07 AM

johnr:

I was tired of Mike Myers before the first Austin Powers, and I wasn't going to see The Love Guru anyway, but thank you AI for reinforcing my belief that the movie is a disaster. I thought the Stiller/Black/Downey bit was fantastic, however. And I'm happy that David Cook won the thing, though I was expecting all of Archuleta's sister-moms (hey, I watch Big Love) to storm the stage with David's Dad in the middle.

David A. seems like a nice kid, but I thought he was overrated the whole year. And I'm pretty sure the loss was because he kept butchering Imagine. Everyone I know who saw him sing that didn't like his version, and we all wanted the first version sung.

Posted by johnr | May 22, 2008 10:30 AM

Lori:

It still stuns me how the producers come up with these guest appearances - so do they sit around at a table and brainstorm George Michael, Donna Summers etc???? Were they all at a party together recently and to be efficient, everyone pulled out their Palm calendars and filled up the guest slots with everyone who had the evening open?

Not a bad show overall- provided good conversation topics at our AI party we attended!

Agreed that Cook made the most of the cheesy AI song - it has been suggested that you listen purely to his voice and ignore the lyrics and then it's not half bad.

Loved the look on Cook's face when Simon "apologized" - kind of like "are-you-serious-it's-a-few-hours-and-a-few-million-votes-too-late for that!" But all's well that ends well.

Being a Cook fan I was thrilled - though a win or a loss would not have made a difference for his success IMO. Archie however- I have to wonder if 2nd place will suit him as well - hopefully there is a contract behind the door for him as well (are the Jonas Brothers looking to expand? JK)

Last of all, kudos to David Cook for keeping some of the limelight on his opponent(s) after the crown. If I remember correctly, in past years as soon as the winner was announced, the 2nd place person was scooped right out of the picture to not be seen again for the rest of the night.

Posted by Lori | May 22, 2008 11:31 AM

johnr:

@James. And I'm with you, I didn't realize until I saw her in the first group number how much I had missed Amanda and her scowl.

Posted by johnr | May 22, 2008 12:21 PM

Keith:

Did Amanda look uncomfortable or what?

Posted by Keith | May 22, 2008 1:39 PM

Electability:

Mike Meyers is a huge, huge wh0re. He had his moment about 10 years ago, but has now become like the high school drama teacher who thinks he's hip and hilarious, but the kids all cringe at his attempts at humor. (also see: Williams, Robin). I thought it was impressive that Cook went the whole season without mentioning that his brother has cancer. He could have totally milked that, but chose not to. He also didn't mention the reason he wore that orange bracelet. (Google it, it's a sweet story). He's a class act and I predict he will do well. I think Archuleta should have a fine career, but hopefully he will do that as far away from my eardrums as possible. Anyone else think that George Michael looked and sounded really odd?

Posted by Electability | May 22, 2008 2:30 PM

Hillary:

Most uncomfortable moments of the night (and there were quite a few: those awful Guitar Hero/"Risky Business" mashups! Forget about DC being able to sing the treacly coronation song...how did he manage to get through the underpants routine?! And why was he wearing briefs while Archie had on boxers? Humiliating, embarrassing to watch and really sort of gross.

Posted by Hillary | May 22, 2008 2:57 PM

Keith:

@Hillary - We thought the Guitar Hero commercials were cute. We all laughed thru both of them at my house. I'm guessing that young "oh my gosh" Archie was not comfortable showing his stuff in briefs.

Posted by Keith | May 23, 2008 1:28 PM

About Tuned In

James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or--once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers--in your dreams themselves.