Guest Author - Ingrid Stamatson

It was a stunning 7th season finale for American Idol on Wednesday night. It came down to the two Davids: 17-year-old Murray Utah's David Archuleta and 25-year-old Oklahoman David Cook.

The show drew nearly 32 million U.S. television viewers according to Nielsen Media Research, which is a 3% increase over last season. An amazing 97 and a half million votes were called in to pick the eventual winner: David Cook. But Cook thought he had lost to Archuleta.

"I thought that Archie [Archuleta] did amazing last night," Cook told Access Hollywood following last night's live Idol finale. "I had my mind made up that I was taking second. I had it in my head. 'Alright, they're going to say his name, I'm just going to make sure that I congratulate him properly.'"

And about Archuleta: "For a 17-year-old kid, never mind, for a performer he's amazing. And it was an honor just to share the stage with him.
from Access Hollywood

I thought Archuleta would win as well as Simon Cowell who announced that he (D.A.) had scored a "knockout" over Cook. However, it ultimately was Cook who won by 56% to 44% home viewer voting margin, or roughly 12 million votes.


About the Winner

David Cook was born December 20, 1982 in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Blue Springs, Missouri and currently resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He graduated from University of Central Missouri in 2006. He has been singing since he was in the 2nd grade and he also plays the guitar and bass guitar. Cook has been a member of two bands, Axium and MWK.

Cook's brother Andrew pushed him to audition and the rest, as they say, is history. David auditioned for Idol's seventh season last summer in Omaha.

At one point during the Idol performances, David landed in the hospital for stress-related anxiety and high blood pressure due to his brother Adam's battle with brain cancer. Adam was forbidden by his doctors from flying, so he took a chartered flight to see his brother David perform on the Idol stage.

Friends and a local councilman arranged for the all-expenses-paid flight on a chartered medical jet, and a local radio station paid for the hotel stay right across from the Los Angeles studio where the "Idol" finalists perform.

Congrats David Cook!

link: David Cook's Tom Cruise-like TV ad