AI: Surprise, surprise

What a long and winding road it has been to the American Idol season finale. Although the match-up of David Cook vs. David Archuleta was not a surprise, it was still suspenseful right down to the finish. When Ryan Seacrest reported a 56-44 blowout early in the broadcast, I didn't know what to think. Did Archuleta's teenage groupies speed dial for four hours and inflate the vote? Or did Cook's fans want Archuleta to not win so bad that they put all of their time and energy into out-voting Little David? Clearly, it was the latter.

I guess today, the day after the results, I feel calm and happy. I was mentally prepared for Archie to win, but am really happy that Cook won. He deserved it more. Plain and simple. He is more prepared to be a star now. I still think Archie is going to be great and have a wonderful career in front of him, but he's just not ready for that yet. Tongue-in-cheek, I think Archie will have one of the best inevitable Christmas albums of all time.

That said, I actually enjoyed Little David's (sorry for the variety of nicknames) performances on Tuesday more than Cook's. I've watched his second song, In This Moment, several times on YouTube and it's quite beautiful. I hope he releases it as a single.

There's not much more to say except the following tidbits:

• I officially will not be seeing "The Love Guru" in theaters.
• Michael Johns & Carly Smithson showed once again last night how they were voted off way too early.
• George Michael actually has an amazing singing voice. I didn't know that.
• David Archuleta sounded better on the OneRepublic song than the actual lead singer.
• David Cook was much better in his Guitar Hero commercial than David Arculeta.
• This is the first year that I would actually consider going to the American Idol concert this summer, but I probably won't.
• I'm never watching this show again...until it comes back on next January.
  

SNL: There Can Be Only One

AI: "Bob"-ing for Lyrics

Mama always said, "Expect the worst, and hope for the best. That way, you'll never be disappointed." Frankly, I don't believe in that (sorry Mom), but I will believe it at least for tonight and tomorrow. You see, I am expecting Syesha to go home tomorrow, but I will hope (beyond all hope!) that Jason has to take his hackey-sack, hemp necklace, and nasty hair back to whichever Winnebago he came from.

But again, my "expectation": Syesha is gone. She has really impressed me the last few weeks. Not with her vocals so much, but with her determination. I mean, she gets almost no love from the judges. No hype. No "molten lava hot." And yet here she is, the last woman standing. Her Tina Turner was definitely more show than vocal, but I can't remember any other contestant perform a song the way she did. Whether it was good or not, I don't know. But we at least got a glimpse of what a Syesha concert might be like. Too bad she's going home. *wink, wink*

I won't beat up Jason any more, because it's just too easy. I mean, his "I'm going with the Bob's - guhuck" theme was just lame to begin with. And both performances were terrible. Even without the forgotten lyrics in the Dylan song, it still sucked. And yet the Marley song was even worse! However, as I've said before, it's better to be ridiculously awful than just okay on this show. And that is why I hope, but don't expect, Jason to be voted off.

Oh yeah, the Davids were pretty good, too. And for the first week in a long time, Archuleta actually out-performed Cook. Not much more to say than that.

Who knows, will Mama Karlovsky's belief system actually work its magic? We'll find out...