David Cook, who earned comparisons to Chris Daughtry all season, ended up going one better than the chrome-domed chart topper.
The 25-year-old former bartender (emphasis on the "former") was named the winner of the seventh season of American Idol Wednesday night, besting velvety voiced runner-up David Archuleta by 12 million votes despite the massive amount of fawning the judges did over the 17-year-old ballad specialist last night—and the really unnecessary amount of criticism Simon Cowell directed at Cook, who more than held his own.
"When I went back home and watched it, it wasn't quite so clear-cut as we called it. David, I will take this opportunity to apologize, because I think I was verging on disrespectful to you," Cowell, who apparently reads the comment sections on all the blogs, told Cook before the big reveal.
American Idol just got a little less sweet 'n' simple.
After a miss and a hit on Neil Diamond night, Brooke White was eliminated from the competition Wednesday, leaving David Archuleta, Jason Castro, David Cook and bottom-two battler Syesha Mercado to keep on fighting for that chance at Idol glory.
"I just want to say thank you. It's going to be terrible for me, I know," the often prematurely apologetic White said, referring to the encore she knew she would be called upon to perform. As if she knew what was coming, she choked up as Ryan Seacrest went through the good-bye motions and then sobbed on Mercado's shoulder after hearing that the majority of 45 million-plus people had cast their votes elsewhere.
Despite the tears, the 24-year-old nanny from Arizona knew enough not to start and stop while taking on Diamond's "I Am...I Said" one last time.
