American Idol Season 10 Finale - Here we go again!

Hello American Idol fans!  Well, I took a chance and blew it once again!!  But, deep down I knew I was making the wrong choice.  But, my major flaw is that I usually pick who I'm rooting for and not for the most likely to win.  I have speculated all season and some of last season on the impact of texting to the voting system and the demographics around who uses texting the most of all.  I think it's safe to say after the past few years that this is scientific fact now.  And if I'm doing this next year, please remind me to stick to my guns through to the end (if AI doesn't change the voting system, of course)!  Anyway, let's pay our congratulations to the man (boy) of the hour!

Winner of American Idol Season 10 - Scotty McCreery!!! 

Scotty was the more consistent of the 2 finalists, but I just enjoyed Lauren's growth on her way to the finale better.  Like I have said before, I think they both have bright futures ahead of them in the country music industry.  Maybe not superstardom like Carrie, but they're so young it's tough to tell where they'll be 10 years from now.  I haven't lost my faith like last year in the show keeping us entertained.  I may have finally lost faith in the voting system though.  And it's no slight against Scotty and his talent.  I mean, it's definitely more than teenage girls that love the kid.  I think I even found myself voting for him a time or two throughout the competition.  But, we saw those videos of his trip home, we saw the crying and screaming girls.  The ones that would dedicate every second of those 2 hours to vote for the man.  And I'm sure they were texting in one hand, calling in the other and using telepathy to do online votes through Facebook!  It has always been ridiculous even back when it was all based on unlimited phone votes.  But the texting is just so fast and you can send so many at a time, that it really does create an unfair advantage.  

Sure, when you can brag about numbers like 122,000,000 votes in one night and .75 Billion votes for the whole season, I guess that's all Idol cares about.  I read a comment yesterday (in protest of the Country Juniors Finale, which I wasn't) sarcastically saying that yes there were over 100 Million votes but only 20 million people that watched the show.  It's kind of ridiculous, wouldn't you say?  This isn't a democracy!  It's a popularity contest!  Always has been, again, just worse with texting now.  If AI ever wants to see a girl win this thing again, they either A.) Need to change the voting system or B.) Find a way to appeal to the male viewers in a way that they can't help themselves but vote!  C.) Have ugly guys that can't sing in the top 12.  

That's really all I can say!  Congratulations to Scotty!  He still deserved his win.  And he may have gotten a girlfriend out of the whole deal too!  The Twitterverse and Internet were all into the gossip last night as there were some lingering moments during their embrace in Scotty's final song.  And I believe there may have been a smooch in there too?   And we definitely saw Lauren plant like 20 kisses in a row on Scotty after the song was over.  Of course, this could have just been a lesson to Haley on how to be a good sport after losing!!  

Anyway, I guess I'll dive into some of the highlights from the 2 hour finale and we'll call it yet another season! 

Highlights (and Lowlights mixed in)

Once again we had our top 13 mixing it up with some big wigs and has beens of the music industry.  Plus, there were other things thrown in to look back on the highlights of the season as well.  Here's what I can remember and my commentary. 

• James Durbin did not end up singing with Aerosmith but he did get to "give Metal a chance" by teaming up with Judas Priest.  I won't saw this is my favorite type of music.  But I did love them singing "Breaking the Law" for a bit!  And, James had to be so happy doing it.  It's cool to see anyone's dream come true on stage. 
• Even Jacob Lusk!  Don't get me wrong, he was still on my last nerve during the Top 13 performances.  But the Gospel Number with Gladys Knight, that other guy, and the big choir wasn't too bad!  Again, not something that is on continuous shuffle on my iPod but entertaining nevertheless! 
• Top 13 doing "Born this Way" again???   Okay, we get it.  American Idol loves Gaga!  Come on, this performance was done back in the top 13 results!  They couldn't learn another song?  It was nice to see the whole crew together again.  It made me remember while there were some annoying contestants, as a whole and as people they were a pretty entertaining bunch of kids. 
• Top 13 Girls sing with Beyonce.  I mean, that was pretty clear that Beyonce was going to come out, right?  We've seen this act before.  Most notably missing from the performance though was Lauren Alaina.  My guess is with her "illness" incident, she probably didn't have time to rehearse with them.   
• Top 13 Boys with Tom Jones .  Because Scotty was with this crew!  They did a medley of some old songs.  At first, naturally I thought it was going to be a Prince Medley but then they busted out into "She's a Lady" and had a feeling we'd be ending with "It's Not Unusual" with a Tom Jones appearance.  I kind of feel bad for Tom.  He probably has some other songs he'd rather perform when he goes on stage but is stuck ALWAYS singing that one!  Anyway, other than that the highlight of this performance was watching these 6 boys trying to get through "What's New Pussycat?" without breaking out into laughter.  You could see they probably had a hysterical time rehearsing that one. 
• The return of T(L)C - Ummm, was anyone really asking for the return of these guys?  My wife blurted out in the middle of the performance "Who decided it was time to pull TLC out of the archives?!" and I understand it's sad that Left-Eye is no longer with us, but do we really feel that "LITTLE JON" was the right fill-in?!  It was nice to here "No Scrubs" and "Waterfalls" again but it just seemed very random!
• "Steppin Out" with Tony Bennett and Haley - All I could think about when Haley was performing with the legend, Mr. Bennett is that she probably didn't even appreciate who she was singing with the whole time.  In fact, and excuse the language I can picture her in rehearsals saying "ARE YOU BLEEPING KIDDING ME!?  I HAVE TO SING WITH TONY BLEEPING BENNETT!?!?!"   The whole performance seemed so awkward and her smile seemed so fake.  Did you see her hesitate when Tony reached out for a hug at the end?  And how she barely grabbed his hand?   Ahh good stuff.  
• "Live Like You Were Dying" with Scotty and Tim McGraw - So Josh Turner didn't make it to the finale.  Oh well, if you can't get Josh you may as well go to the real deal with Tim McGraw!  They had a good time trading lyrics in this one and it was fun to watch. 
• "Before He Cheats" with Lauren and Carrie Underwood.  This one I totally called on the money, but I think anyone would have!  And I was actually really impressed to see Lauren hold her own with Carrie.  Carrie must have made Lauren feel a little more comfortable out there than usual so her nerves were gone and she was just having a good time.  
• Marc Anthony sings in Spanish!  - I think we all noticed that J-Lo was missing for a rather large segment of the show.  I started speculating that she was going to perform.  Once Marc was called out to the stage and she wasn't at the table watching her husband, it was a no brainer that she would be coming out to do some provocative Latin Dancing.  It was entertaining and of course, very random.  And let's not forget the legendary Sheila E. was rocking those drums!! 
• Steven Tyler (sans Aerosmith) sings "Dream On" - We knew Stevie had to get up there before all was said and done.  It's a shame the band didn't back him up but it was still a good time! 
• Bono and The Edge and that other guy perform a song from "Turn Up The Dark" (or whatever the Spiderman Musical is called).  Man, they are trying anything to save this show aren't they!?   I have to admit, we were behind and wanted to see the results LIVE, so we skipped through this.  
• Beyonce's solo performance was good I guess.  I don't know why she had to be there 2 times though. 
• And then there was Gaga.  I'll be the first to admit that this girl is very talented and her music is unfairly catchy.  But I just do not understand all of the theatrics and outfits.  I mean, it looked like she walked straight off of Naboo and the set of The Phantom Menace!   And there was some moments in that dance with the man on the cliff that may have been "too much for Family Show" but darn it if "Edge of Glory" isn't stuck in my head!  

• We had our typical remembrance of bad auditions with the guy that wanted to be a DJ narrating.  Some of it was funny as usual.  
• The clips of the judges were hysterical too.  Randy's "in it to win it" and "what's going on with this show?"   Steven's flirty ways.  Man, he was so much more fun in the auditions.  J-Lo being Flirted WITH.  Good stuff.  I still miss Simon!   X-Factor in the fall people! 
• The finalists being able to choose their own FORD this year?  That's pretty cool.  Giving their principals/teachers a car too?  Overkill probably but still a nice TV moment! 

Man, did I miss anything!?  I did all of that from memory so I guess there's a chance I did!   It was an entertaining finale as usual with an anti-climatic ending.  But, I'm glad that I stepped back into the Blog-Light and returned to my Idol blogging this season.  I just think I am drawn to writing about this show.  It's tough not to.  And if I'm watching, why not comment, right!?   The only thing I'm worried about in the future is having TIME to do it.  So, the recaps may continue for LIVE IDOL Episodes, but they may continue to get shorter as time goes on.   We'll just have to see how things go! 

X-Factor is the fall.  Will I be watching?  Yeah, most likely.  Will I be commenting!?  That is to be determined.  If I do, I'm guessing I'd just write about it here on the Idol blog if the Idol purists are okay with that!  So, stay tuned on that one!  

And hey, lots of fun discussions going on for other TV Shows on my newer blog, http://www.tvaddictsblog.com/.  The Event is cancelled, but Fringe and The Walking Dead will continue on!   And I'll be there to recap them.  Promising shows are lined up for the next season with Terra Nova, Alcatraz, Awake plus others.  Again, time available, will determine if I have time to write about them.  But be sure to bookmark my new site if you're interested in television because most likely I'll be discussing it!   

Also, this past week marked the 1 year anniversary of the LOST Finale and I wrote a post to commemorate it, also again looking toward the future of television.  

So, I think that's about it!  Thanks everyone for returning to the blog and keeping the Idol discussion alive.  I had lots of fun!  Congratulations once again to Scotty (and Lauren)!  Fun season, anti-climatic finish but still a good time!   Hope you enjoyed my ramblings as always and I'll see you next year! (I think)