The Other Door

American Idol: Vanilla beats pistachio

The result was no surprise. Adam Lambert was the third-party candidate this season. The closes "Idol" has come to electing someone this unconventional was back when Clay Aiken finished second. Lambert was extreme and extraordinary he wasn't going to win. He was too over-the-top, too sexually disoriented, too campy, too everything. It's surprising he lasted as long as he did. Most likely, lots of perturbed Danny Gokey fans made sure he wasn't going to steamroll another happy-loving nice guy. Mainstream goes vanilla again.

Lambert will be just fine. He took what he needed from this show, plus more. He'll make some kind of rock record, endorse ... cosmetics (?), do theater. Kris Allen's road ahead is less certain. His field of competion now includes Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5 and John Mayer. Hard to imagine him standing out in that crowd.

The larger picture is just as cloudy: Where does Idol go from here? Viewership is way down again; and the show has become numbingly predictable. The fourth-judge experiment was a failure. Kara DioGuardi added nothing to the chemistry, and that coronation song she wrote was a bucket of warm spit. Aside from Simon Cowell, the other judges offer nothing but worn-out shtick.

The show has produced several successful recording artists -- six in eight  years: Kelly Clarkson, Aiken, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, David Cook. But that's only 15 percent of the top 5 over eight years. And only three of those finished first. Not a good track record.

The show will be back next year, it looks like; everyone has contracts to honor. But it looks even more likely that this juggernaut may not live to be 10 years old. Slowly but certainly, this show is singing its own swan song.

American Idol: Finally, the finale

In this neck of the woods, even the most compelling finale of this season's "American Idol" had to be a let down. It was like this year's Final Four (if you're a KU fan) or the 1986 World Series (if you're a Royals fan) or the 2006 Arena Bowl (if you're a Colorado Crush fan).  Around here, Season 8 of "American Idol" feels vaguely similar to last year's showdown, when David Cook, who lives in Tulsa but is from Blue Springs, won the title, smacking down the Mormon boy with the man voice, David Archuleta. This year, the setup is similar but the vibe is different; it's like watching someone else's child graduate.

American Idol: Go, Danny, go

Adam Lambert can't watch what Ryan Seacrest is about to say. Funny, though: When Lambert sings, some people cover their ears and their eyes.

Nearly 90 million votes were cast after the Final 3 performances on Tuesday night -- 88 million, to be kind of exact. That's the official "American Idol" figure. It doesn't represent voters. It represents how fast those voters could Gatlin-gun their texts back to the cyber-polls. The difference between the No. 1 No. 2 vote-getter was 1 million votes, or a few hairs over 1 percent. The only figure that matters: Danny Gokey finished No. 3, which means he is going home again. He'd gone back to Milwaukee last weekend for his homecoming weekend. He could have left the milk out and returned in time to keep it fresh, as it turned out.

American Idol: The final dash to '1'

 

Above: Kris Allen gives Kanye West a little solo-geetar makeover.

Homecoming Week means viewers of "American Idol" have entered the home stretch of a race whose beginning seems farther away than just four months ago. Over the weekend, the Final 3 contestants went back to their hometowns where they indulged in some staged mania and media frenzy. Viewers will see footage from those events on Wednesday, right before one of the three gets the big heave-ho off the show.

Tuesday night those three contestants were put through the Final 3 gauntlet. First they sang a song recommended by one of the judges. Then each sang a song he picked for his very own self. The four-judge format messed up the math here: Randy Jackson had to pair up with Kara DioGuardi in selecting a song for Kris Allen. Paula Abdul picked one for Danny Gokey. And Simon Cowell chose one for Adam Lambert. Each received his assignment via text while schmoozing in his hometown over the weekend, and only one of the three songs the judges have selected is younger than 17 years old. Way to stay fresh and contemporary. The roll call: