Two Finales in One Week

Reality TV fans were rewarded with two amazing finales this week.....American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. In both cases, the person I was rooting for ended up winning. I have to start with the American Idol finale for two reasons....first of all, my FSIL complained that I didn't blog about it yet and secondly, I thought the entire show was amazing from beginning to end, an ending which had me totally shocked.

To explain my shock, I have to go back to Tuesday night's show where each of the two David's got to sing three songs. When the evening had ended, the judges had given the night to David Archuletta. There's no mistaking the fact that David Archuletta was brilliant on Tuesday night but an entire season goes into picking the winner and not just one night. David Cook was also terrific on Tuesday night but even I'll admit that I thought Archuletta sang some better songs. But that's the difference between Cook and Archuletta. Cook takes chances and can sing many different kinds of songs. Archuletta is more of a ballad kind of guy and to prove that he isn't a chance taker, he sang a song last night that he had already sung during the season. I thought that was a cop out.

When last night's show began, Ryan Seacrest announced that the winner had gotten 57% of the 97.5 million votes counted. Wow I thought, that's a pretty wide margin. I think David Cook felt, going into the show, that Archuletta was going to be the winner....especially after listening to the judges the night before. And when Ryan made this announcement, he pretty much conceded the victory to Archuletta. The next two hours were fantastic with appearances by One Republic, Carrie Underwood, George Michael, Seal, Donna Summer, ZZ Top, Bryan Adams and so many other great performances. Fast forward to the last five minutes of the show, because that's how much time Fox usually gives its avid viewers to share in the excitement with the winner. Ryan then makes his last announcement saying that the winner of American Idol 2008 is David.............and then he says Cook. I almost lost it. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was so happy for David Cook. He was legitimately shocked. And so ends this season of American Idol.

So what do I think happened to bring about this significant difference in the votes? If the other voters are anything like I am, they too were incensed by what the judges did on Tuesday night literally picking the winner and awarding the title before the American public had even had a chance to vote. While I definitely would have cast a few votes for David Cook, this action by the judges made me vote at least 100 times. I kept hitting the redial button on my phone over and over and over again. What else do I think came into play in the voting? I'd have to say two things....David Archuletta's stage Dad, who Idol producers had banned from being backstage while David was rehearsing and David's humbling, naive smile which almost became annoying week after week even though I believe it to be sincere. But when all was said and done, I felt so sorry for him and I thought he handled it better than any other seventeen year old might have. I think he will have an amazing career in his own right and, as Simon Cowell said, they both could have won and he would have been happy. It's unusual for him to feel this way. It's the first time he has ever said that either person equally deserved to win.

Moving on to Dancing With the Stars and a very stellar season. When it began, I didn't have high hopes for this sixth season but as the shows progressed, it just got better and better. Looking back at the blog I wrote the night it began, I picked the winner from the very first show. Kristi Yamaguchi was great from beginning to end until she was awarded the winner's trophy during the finale. This was a season filled with drama and injuries but Kristi was able to avoid all of these catastrophes. In looking back at the other five winners, only one was a woman and three out of the five were athletes and now with Kristi winning, four out of the six winners were athletes. Which just goes to show that all of the training and competive spirit that's ingrained in these athletes translates to other mediums.

Watching her dance, you would think she was a professional dancer. She was flawless in everything she did which was very reminiscent of how she performed on the ice in all of her previous championship events. I guess once a winner, always a winner. In her case, it absolutely holds true. She's the type of role model little girls should have. My other favorite this season was Jason Taylor who ended up being in the finale with Kristi. It was so hard to believe he was a football player when watching him waltz around the floor. I read somewhere today that he's not being welcomed back by the Miami Dolphins as a result of his appearance on Dancing With The Stars. I'm sure he'll get picked up by another team but this exposure can only help him. I think Hollywood is knocking on his door right now and I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the big screen one of these days.

I really enjoyed watching both of these shows. I think what I especially enjoyed in the case of American Idol was the fact that it was unpredictable. Up until the very last minute, you had no idea who was going to win. And with Dancing With The Stars, I was just so happy that the most talented dancer actually won. So all in all, it was a great season as far as I'm concerned. Now that these are both off the air, I have so many more hours in the week to BLOG!!!!!