The American Idol Is Crowned 2010: Finale Part 2

Welcome back. It's been a long couple days or so and we are back with the full recap of the American Idol finale. I know that it's not news anymore but this is "I'dol Be The Judge"'s take on the show.

Before I begin I want to thank anyone and everyone who has read "I'dol Be The Judge" over the past couple of months. It's been fun and we hope to be back next season. Please come back within a week or so for our next entry on "Ways To Fix American Idol". That will be a fun post.

But that's not why we're here today. We are here to talk about Lee DeWyze, Crystal Bowersox and the American Idol Finale. Ryan informs us only 2% of the vote seperated Lee & Crystal, so it should be interesting.

Judge's Are Introduced: For the last time Simon Cowell is introduced as a Judge on American Idol. He gets a large round of applause and even Randy Jackson gives him a standing ovation.

Top 12 Sing: They sing "School's Out For Summer". Orianthi plays the guitar and Alice Cooper comes out stage and we quickly remember how awful the Top 12 really were. Luckily, their voices are pretty drowned out by the loudness of the band and inclusion of Alice Cooper and the backup singers.

Reigning American Idol Champion Performance: Kris Allen, handing over his title to either Lee or Crystal. Allen definetly needed to win last year just so he can make his appearance on the American Idol finale every year. It will keep him in an elite group forever. Adam Lambert has made a name for himself outside of American Idol and has proven that he didn't really need the win. So in that respect I can understand the judge's push to make Lee the winner. They probably believe that Crystal doesn't really need it as much because she is so much more skilled vocally. They pretty much said as much. Despite past non-winner's clams that just making it to the Top 10 is enough, Kris Allen, Taylor Hicks & Ruben Studdard prove that winning is incredibly important because outside of American Idol it's a bit rough out there, sometimes you have to win. Thus making tonight pretty important, especially to Lee.

Simon Cowell Retrospective on Being The Consumate Professional: They begin to show clips of Simon being Simon. Ryan, Kara, Ellen, Randy, even Paul Abdul each have a take on Simon. One of my favorite clips of Simon was during an audition he begins to eat some potato chips and slurping his drink.

Siobhan & Aaron Perform: They sing "How Deep is Your Love" with the Bee Gees. Pretty cool. I don't see a lot of connection to Siobhan and Aaron but having the Bee Gees is interesting.

Michael Lynche Performs: He sings "Takin it To The Streets" with Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers fame. So far American Idol is definetly targeting an older audience with The Bee Gees and Michael McDonald but I guess it's better than Justin Bieber.

Simon's Greatest Insults: Dane Cook sings some of Simon's greatest insults. It's more of a roast then anything else. Then some of the more "memorable" bad performers from auditions come out on stage. I guess it was kind of funny. I think it was probably a better concept then how it actually panned out.

The Ladies Perform: Siobhan, Crystal, Paige, Lacey, Didi & Katie sing Christina Aguliera's "Beautiful" and "Stronger". Lacey and Paige really are still pretty bad. Didi, Katie, Siobhan and obviously Crystal sounded pretty good. Didi definetly left the competition too early.

Christina Aguliera Performance: She finishes up "Stronger" with the ladies and then sings her new song. No shock that she came out to perform given they sang 2 of her songs. Aguliera definetly has one of the strongest female voices out there. She's been gone for awhile but her voice is still as great as always.

The Men Perform: They sing Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go For That" & "Maneater", I wonder who is going to come out next...

Hall & Oates Performance: Again, no shocker that they come out after the boys sang a couple of their tunes. They sing their old tunes. Sounds good.

Crystal Performs: She sings Alanis Morrisette's "Ironic" and then Alanis Morrisette comes out and she and Crystal sing "You Oughta Know". They had to change a couple of the lyrics since American Idol is on broadcast television. Their voices compliment each other really well. They sound different in parts and then sound kind of similar interestingly.

Carrie Underwood Performs: She sings her new song "Undo It". It was 5 years ago that she was crowned American Idol. She is at least tied with or at this point might have even passed Kelly Clarkson as the most popular American Idol winner. Unlike most of the other winners, American Idol isn't nessarily the first thing people think of when they think of her. To me, that's the biggest sign of success for an American Idol winner.

Lee & Crystal Ford Music Video: Crystal and Lee are first awarded new Ford cars. They are kind of subdued when they realize that they won. Kind of on par with the season as a whole I say. At least they didn't win Toyotas.

Casey James Performs: He sings "Every Rose Has It's Thorn". Then Bret Michaels of Poison comes out and joins Casey. Given the guy was in the hospital recently with a brain hemmorage Bret Michaels looks and sounds pretty good. Plus he is rumored to be a possible Simon Cowell replacement. Though a lot of names are being thrown so we'll see on that one.

Lee Performs: Lee performs with the namesake of his hometown, Chicago. They sing a medly of their songs. He sounds and looks so much more relaxed then performance night. No one ever said the guy doesn't have talent, it's just he let the performance night overtake him. When he is in his groove, his in his groove.

Simon Cowell Retrospective on Being a Flirt: This clip package is pretty cute. They show some moments with Paula and some of the past audtions with girls fliriting with him.

Pants On The Ground: For a few minutes back in the Winter, "Pants On The Ground" was a pretty big deal. Everyone was talking about it. It was pretty funny and American Idol isn't one to let something like that go. They squeeze every last drop of funny out of every moment.

Simon & Paula: They show a clip package of Simon and Paula's good, bad and...different moments. Then live on the stage Paula Abdul comes out. She gets a huge standing ovation. She never had a sendoff herself so I am glad she came back. She looks great, is pretty coherent, and is pretty funny. Paula was always pretty funny when she had a script in front of her, and it only got interesting when she would have to think on the fly or if her Coca-Cola cup was filled with something other than Coca Cola.

Goodbye Simon Retrospective: To Frank Sinatra's tune of "My Way" they show many of Simon's greatest moments. He really did do a lot for not only American Idol but television in general. He made being honest the in thing to do. The whole reality dynamic changed because of American Idol but mostly because of Simon Cowell. They end the package with Simon saying to American Idol and its audience, "Thank You, I'm Going To Miss You". In reality, we definetly are going to miss him. No matter what, the show will forever be drastically different. If it lasts 2 more seasons or 8 more it won't matter, it's best years were with Randy, Paula & Simon. So Thanks Simon for a great 9 years.

The Past American Idol Winners Perform for Simon: Sans David Cook(who had a previous committment to a charity event), all the past American Idol winners sing together on stage all dressed in black. They sing "Together We Are One". No matter how many contestants auditioned or made the Top 10 over the years, only 8 people can go up on that stage and say they are the American Idol winner. It's an elite club that Lee or Crystal will soon join. Then many memorable contestants come out on stage all dressed in white. From just panning quickly on stage it consited of many of the runners up and former Top 10 contestants, like Justin Guarini, Bo Bice and others. Simon says a few words and thanks everyone from the bottom of his heart.

Getting back to Lee & Crystal and the Top 12:

Janet Jackson & The Top 12: They sing Janet Jackson's "Again", then she comes out on stage with an incredibly short haircut. She actually looks incredibly beautiful. Not a lot of people can pull off that kind of haircut. She then sings "Nothing" and then "Nasty". A bit of trivia many people know is that Paula Abdul choreographed Janet's "Nasty" music video back in the 80s. So it's all full circle. She still has it after all these years.

Lee & Crystal Retrospective: They show us a clip package of Lee & Crystal's journey to the finals.

Lee & Crystal Perform: Lee & Crystal sing "With a Little Help From My Friends". The Joe Cocker version not the Beatles version. Most notably utilized as the Wonder Years theme song.

And after all these months it is time for the winner to be announced, either Crystal Bowersox or Lee Dewyze.

And The Winner Is.....: Lee DeWyze. He almost passes out when Ryan announces his name. The Top 12 rush to give Lee hugs. Lee begins to get emotional and is in just total disbelief and shock. I kind of feel the same way. After getting pretty severly beaten during performance night, I thought it was more of a foregone conclusion that Crystal had it in the bag, but that obviously is not the case. Lee is a genuine guy and really does have a great voice. Congratulations to him. To end the night Lee sings his new single "Beautiful Day.

Final Thoughts on Lee & Crystal: Well, in a few short days I will be posting ways to fix American Idol and how and why Lee DeWyze won will be included. I'm not saying that Lee DeWyze wasn't a decent contestant and probably one of the more interesting story, but that's not a reason to win. It should be based on performances and he just got blown away during the Finale. But as I said, Lee was a decent contestant, although Crystal Bowersox was the overall better performer and carried the show on her own at several points during the season. She lost a little momentum over the past couple weeks and that was her ultimate downfall. Another factor, which can't be overlooked is Casey James. Casey James had plenty of teen girl votes and when he left, more than likely those teen girls went to the other cute boy, Lee. They probably did not go to Crystal. I truly believe that if someone like Siobhan was in the Final 3 with Crystal and Lee, then Crystal would have had Siobhan's fans and probably would have won. But again, we can't go back. Congratulations to Lee DeWyze.

Final Thoughts on Simon Cowell & American Idol: Well it's an end of an era. I'm not saying that the show will be cancelled after next season because Simon Cowell isn't on the show, but the show will be changing dramatically. With rumors flying that everyone and no one will be replacing Simon, the main responsibility will fall on the shoulders of Randy, Ellen & Kara(if they are all still around). Supposedly American Idol is looking to have a different guest judge on every single week for the entire season, or the now rumored Bret Michaels. Either way, Simon Cowell was American Idol and him leaving will leave a huge gap. I don't know what's going to be, but since the ratings were down significantly this year with Simon still on the show I can imagine what it will be like next year when he isn't. I'll probably still watch just to see what is going to happen, but it's going to be incredibly different.

Thanks again to all those that came to I'dol Be The Judge. As I said we will be back shortly on the "Ways to Fix American Idol". They are plentiful so stick around for that. Thanks for joining us for Season 9. Have a great summer and we will see you back here soon.