I heard that Chris was asked to be the lead singer for Fuel...

I heard the same thing...

But dang. That was creepy: The Clay impersonator, and then the Clay impersonator nearly having a seizure and then gazing lovingly in Clay's direction as Clay serenaded us all...

Yikes

Mm. Sushi.

My fiancee makes great California roles. It helps that she's actually Japanese, though.

Ugh...that MeatLoaf song killed me. I love the original song, and I'm a HUGE MeatLoaf fan...but the arranger on that should be shot, then stabbed, then hung, then draw, quartered, and finally disemboweled.

Live. Throwing Copper. 'nuff said.

they should hire however revamped the AI finale to do the Oscars -- that was a million times better than previous attempts! very entertaining -- and how in he world did they ever get Prince!

HiDef got the wrong feed for the second hour. We switched to old NTSC station and caught the middle of Carrie Underwood singing her latest single. It was very good.

The whole night seemed like a showcase of why Kat shouldn't have been in the final. Sarah... I actually thought Kellie did Bacharach's song very well. It reminded me of her first audition.

Taylor did sing at the end, but it was that poorly written single he sang from the night before (but it sounded better... maybe it grows on you).

Congratulations to Taylor Hicks.

Good thing you missed the last song sarahk. It sucked. I did not watch any of the season, just the finale tonight. If the season was anything like that group of guys singing "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" then I am glad I did not watch. Me and my wife laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes. And I am with Spidey on the Clay Aiken thing. That was disgusting. Singing an Elton John song just kind of highlighted the wierdness of it. There is one thing that is indisputable. Pickler is hot! Who cares if she can sing, or not. She can get one of those Paris Hilton, million-dollar, waving jobs.

I think this has pretty much been the best season of the show so far, with an amazing variety of very strong talent.

I also liked Taylor from the very beginning. Taylor and Paris, and Elliot was probably my #3. Frankly they all did well.

People who snark on a show they haven't even watched, or, turn crybaby because their favorite didn't win, are just being, well, crybabies. You know, like Kerry voters. ;-)

Well, at least Katherine didn't run into a shortage of cleavage-baring dresses (Of course, apparently neither did her mom).

And Sarahk, you are right. Kat is all about "McMe!!". Did anyone else notice that during "I've had the Time of My Life", she hardly acknowledged Taylor was even there?

GO TAYLOR!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Since you asked, the common thread on all those songs?? Umm... they were all written by Burt Bacharach. And I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" was Meatloaf's before Celine ever left Canada. And, not to be picky, but the guy Paris sang with is Al Jerreau, not Jerome (though I could be a little off on the spelling). You're WAY young, huh?? LOL

And since it's the last AI update I'll say it; I never got Elliot's appeal. My opinion is that the judges thought they were hearing Jim Nabors whenever they watched Elliot sing. Never thought Taylor would make it this far, but I'm so happy America has great taste after all.

Thanks for thinking so, Grama, no, I'll be 30 in July, so right now I'm not feeling WAY young.

Yeah, I got that the common thread was Bacharach, I may have gotten Al Jerreau's name wrong, but I'm not quite a moron. What I meant was other than that, there was no flow. One song didn't lead into another, they didn't all have a common theme. i.e., when the girls sang, all the songs except "Trouble" were about being women and even had "women" or "woman" in the title. If you're gonna do a medley of one legend's songs, get a common thread, make them flow somehow so that the whole audience doesn't feel disheveled after listening.

About the Meatloaf song. I've never been a Meatloaf fan and never heard his version. If this version from last night was the original... it SUCKS, and Celine only improved on it. And none of that changes the fact that when the duet was going on last night, it sounded like they just shook up the Boggle cube and said, "Hey, let's sing that."

Meatloaf sounded out of breath. Like an old man.
Was Toni Braxton's mic even on? I couldn't tell.

I can't figure out this guy named Meatloaf? What's the appeal?

Lisa's performance of "Alfie" was too good not to get an honorable mention. Her voice is phenomenal!

Ah, c'mon. I didn't think that Kat and Taylor's duet "time of my life" was so bad. In fact, they actually LOOKED as if they were having the time of their lives.

Clay's do was a bit much for me - overly styled. That impersonator, who I think was an unemployed comedian, ruined the song. But it was a funny segment.

Sarahk, your running commentary was great. Had my eyes tearing from laughter.

I am with Franklinstein. Live, "Throwing Copper." It all you need to know.

Sarah, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to sound critical, really. That's the problem with this Internet thingie; it's so hard to see tongue-in-cheek, even with a good connection.

I couldn't agree more about Meatloaf; his only appeal ever was his way of stringing clever lyrics together. For the uninitiated probably the most memorable of his tunes was "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." But I've never been much of a fan either.

As for last night, it seemed to me Toni Braxton got into some serious druggage backstage before appearing. The only bright spots to me were Dionne Warwick and Prince. (I'd like to hate him, but there's just something about his music.)

I'm going to miss your updates... been looking forward to them on Wed. mornings for a while now.

I thought that it was a fantastic show with some great surprises! Wow Clay Aikin looked so different! Katherine should have won. She is miles ahead of Taylor Hicks!! She can sing! It should have been her and Chris in the final.

I loved Clay singing "Don't let your son go down on me" by Elton John with his clone-gone-wrong adoringly ogling him. Talk about a kodiak moment.

Yeah, that's right, I said kodiak! I wish a friggin' bear would've come out and mauled da both of em!

I think this has pretty much been the best season of the show so far

You can't be serious. This is hands down the worst so far. One, count them, ONE week had performances good enough to keep and not delete. Every other week was mediocre, mediocre, mediocre.

I was out having dinner and they had the show on without the sound. When Clay came out, I didn't make the connection and thougt it was K.D Lang. Learning that is was Clay only makes it funnier.

yeah, I had the sound off too. the only thing that made Spaz's win and performances bearable... of course, the video off would have been even better.

worst season ever, and that's saying a lot given the two previous seasons (especially the 3rd). Kat and Elliot did grow on me a bit, but I still say Mandisa was the only one even deserving of being in the final 12, with Paris up there too. the upside is, after three straight horrible seasons, I have no desire ever to watch this crap again.

I love Clay, too but man...he looked absolutely creepy in that fake-colored dark, flat hair. WTF? I was horrified. Mary J was NOT amazing. She freaking over took the stage and drowned out Elliot. I LOVE Elliot so what a shame she screached her way through that beautiful U2 song and tried to knock E. out of the picture. Also, Toni Braxton singing with Taylor on Elvis's Ghetto song. Yee-effing-ikes! Was she loaded or what? Did someone NOT tell her that the song is NOT about sex and hooring? She acted like a mindless slut up there, strutting around like she was selling her big ass for sex up there. Hello?! The song is about children in the ghetto NOT a hoor trying to turn people on with her big crotch. Sheesh. if you have a good voice--use it! Don't rely on the same old tired sex crap time after time.

Prince sounded awful, too. Was it just the acoustics in that place? Most of the songs fell way short to me. NOthing was really stirring or good. Why the HELL would they make Chris sing "Between the Moon and New York City." ?? Why?? That song is HORRIBLE!! Egads! Wish they just stuck to all of Burt's old, wonderfully classic stuff. Dionne should give a lesson to all the girls (especially Mary J Blige and Toni Braxton), on how you can sing a great song without losing the melody by screaming, screeching and doing endless runs that---up and down and all over the bloody place.

When Meatloaf first opened his mouth, I almost had to run screaming from the room. I was so embarrassed. It was so painful to sit through. And why coudln't they find a classier, less OVER used song for Taylor and Kat to sing...Time of My Life? Pleeaaaze! How many times have we had to sit through that sappy crap from Dirty Dancing to every idiotic dueting couple across the globe.

Ironically, the Brokenote Cowboys sounded tighter than anyone that night. Well, except for Chris when he sang with Live. That was excellent but then, when you watch Chris and hear him, you feel like you're really watching a star which is quite unlike the feeling you get when you watch Taylor. Anyhow the Brokenote Cowboys did a great job. They harmonized correctly, sounded strong vocally and had more presence than most of the other acts.

I still love Chris and Elliot. The best thing that could have happened to either of those boys is NOT winning American Idol which to me, takes talent and forces it to sing crappy, third-rate, sap-sucker, AVERAGE pop songs. A fate worse than death for most truly gifted and unique talents.

**scuze my typos. I flew through this and have no spell check.

Two funniest moments that made it totally worth watching the finale:

1) That part with the Clay impersonator was freakin' hilarious!!! He was definitely falling in love with Clay. He's probably still jacking off right now. What a psycho.

2) My wife and I looked at each other and simultaneously said, "Is that David Hasselhoff? Is he CRYING?" Ha ha ha ha ha! That guy from The Soup is going to have a ball with that one!