No surprises: finale recap and analysis

Although it seems the entire press was shocked upon hearing the revelation that David Cook had defeated David Archuleta at last night's Season 7 finale, I try not to sound cocky when I say I had it right all along. What needs to be acknowledged here is that this competition is a marathon, not a sprint.

First, let's analyze the results.

Although the online fanbases do not always reflect the general public's demographics, the online polls at various outlets all seemed to be going in Cook's favor throughout the duration of the Top 12, and an even better indicator was how he was able to sell his downloads. Remember back to "Billie Jean"? Despite the fact that none of the Idol studio versions were allowed to show up on the official iTunes charts, the popularity bars in comparison to the then-#1 song, Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body," were astoundingly higher when viewed through the loophole iTunes had.

For a song to be selling that much, you know the people buying it are invested fans, and voting is free, while buying the song on iTunes is not. So you do the math.

And then, of course, Simon and his infamous "subtle wink" at Cook after giving him a rather harsh criticism of his third performance sealed the deal. At the finale last night, Simon apologized to Cook for "verging on being disrespectful" with his comments, and on the red carpet minutes before the broadcast began last night, Simon had taken back his declaration that Arch delivered "a knockout."

Regardless of what he'll admit to, Simon was more likely than not using his signature reverse psychology with Cook to rile up his fans and give him the surefire victory. But by 12 million out of 97.5 million votes? A 56-44% split? That seems a bit of a landslide, which no one would have expected. One good thing to know is that DialIdol.com was more accurate than ever at this finale, as the two Davids were separated by 12 points in their results, too.

As for his reaction to hearing the good news, Cook was overwhelmed with emotion and had to walk it off, but he recovered very nicely and was spot on in his performance of "The Time of My Life." I'll admit, it was hard to keep a straight face hearing him sing about "magic rainbows," but he gets all the slack cut in the world because Idol fans know the coronation songs are about nothing but sugar and cheese. It was great to see everyone surrounding him and supporting him at the end, and even Arch seemed all smiles.

As for the show itself, it was better than last year's, but not as good as some of the finales from seasons past. The performances that stood out for me were the duet of "The Letter" by Michael Johns and Carly Smithson, Arch's duet on "Apologize" with OneRepublic and Carrie Underwood's performance of "Last Name."

With Michael and Carly, the two of them had so much chemistry during the performance, and the way they acted it out, it made it even more special. I had picked them to be the Top 2 at the beginning of the season and they sure looked like a Top 2 last night. With Arch and OneRepublic, I thought Arch outsang lead singer Ryan Tedder by a mile and a half, and I kind of wish he had performed it on Top 3 night rather than "With You." And then Carrie's performance was (in the words of one Randy Jackson) blazin', molten hot! She looked beautiful in her short white dress and sounded better than she ever has on that song.

Some other good performances were Cook's duet of "Sharp Dressed Man" with ZZ Top, during which he showed his true rocker cred, and Brooke White's duet with Graham Nash on "Teach Your Children," which was touching to say the least. Jason Castro's reprise of "Hallelujah" was another treat, though it lacked the magic that his first performance had. And George Michael's performance of "Praying For Time," although a little too long, was very moving considering the atmosphere of the ominous, dimly-lit Nokia Theatre.

Some letdowns were the Jonas Brothers (big surprise), the hologram performance of Gladys Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia" with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Iron Man himself - Robert Downey, Jr. and (as much as I love her) even Jordin Sparks' performance of her new single, "One Step At a Time." I also thought Syesha Mercado would have been better off singing "Waiting For You" without Seal, but that would have taken away the cool factor, so it is what it is. And then the Top 6/12 numbers with Bryan Adams and Donna Summer were kind of nice, but nothing special. It was great to see all 12 of them on stage together again, though.

And like all finales, it would not have been the same without a visit down memory lane to look at the trash that were bad auditions, taken out long ago and forgotten about until now. The "let my peebul gohhhhh" guy and the "frosty mountain" guy were classic, but of course it was Renaldo Lapuz who finally got a golden ticket to Hollywood, albeit not the one he was expecting, and landed a prime performing spot at the finale. He belted out "We're Brothers Forever" accompanied by a marching band and cheerleading squad (I knew we would be seeing more of him for the finale as soon as his audition aired). And surprisingly, there was no sign of Josiah Lemming, the famous British-sounding, car-inhabiting 18-year-old who just missed out on a spot in the Top 24.

So all in all, this was a pretty good finale to end an above average season, but there are still many problems that need to be worked out. This season will be remembered for many things, among them the issue of having "plants" as contestants, the legitimacy of the judges' comments thanks to Paulagate, and a continuing slide in the ratings. Yes, there were many great moments that came out of this season, including memorable performances from many of the contestants ("Billie Jean," "Angels," "It's All Wrong, But It's All Right," "Here You Come Again," "Hallelujah," "Imagine," "Always be My Baby," the list goes on...), Simon's "WTF face" during Fantasia's performance and the many great Idol alums' performances.

So no matter what, this season will be remembered infinitely more than Season 6. Now the question is, will this season's batch of finalists be able to hold onto solid careers, or will they suffer "flash in the pan"-itis? It's way too early to tell, but it looks like David Cook will for sure be a bona fide star. Thanks America, for getting it right.