Grand Finale (American Idol 7)
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The Grand Finale of American Idol Season 7 aired on May 21, 2008, live from the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, California. David Cook was announced as the winner, with David Archuleta as the runner-up.
Guest performers included Donna Summer, Bryan Adams, ZZ Top, Graham Nash, OneRepublic, Seal, George Michael and the Jonas Brothers. Previous winners Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks were also guest performers.
Celebrities in the audience include Holly Robinson-Peete, Lori Loughlin, Ruben Studdard, Janice Dickinson, Joel McHale, Melinda Doolittle, Teri Hatcher, Mark L. Wahlberg, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Fantasia, George Huff, Jeri Ryan, Sanjaya Malakar, Bo Bice, Blake Lewis, Justin Guarini, Kimberly Caldwell, Tia Mowry and Ashley Tisdale.
Ryan Seacrest revealed the highest number of votes ever in the Idol history at 97.5 million. The previous record was 74 million when Jordin Sparks beat Blake Lewis in 2007. He also noted the percentage breakdown of the vote was 56% for the winner and 44% for the runner up.
Mikalah Gordon was live in Kansas City, Missouri with Cook's fans and interviewed his music teacher Miss Gentry. Matt Rogers was in Salt Lake City and interviewed David Archuleta's grandfathers.
[edit] Performances
- The Top 12 sang "Get Ready" by The Temptations as finalists from So You Think You Can Dance took the stage.
- David Archuleta and David Cook performed "Hero" by Chad Kroeger featuring Josey Scott.
- Archuleta and Cook received a private screening of The Love Guru starring Mike Myers, who would appear on stage as Guru Pitka. In a clip of them meeting Pitka (Myers), he was playing a knockoff of Guitar Hero (Sitar Hero). Both finalists appeared in Guitar Hero commercials that premiered during the finale, imitating Tom Cruise's underwear dance scene from Risky Business.
- Syesha Mercado performed "Waiting for You", with Seal.
- Jason Castro performed "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen.
- After a montage of bloopers from the Idol Ford music videos set to "Let the Good Times Roll", both finalists received keys to their own Ford Escape Hybrid.
- The Top 6 Women performed a medley of "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Hot Stuff", with Donna Summer performing her new single "Stamp Your Feet" and "Last Dance".
- Carly Smithson and Michael Johns sang a duet of "The Letter" by Box Tops.
- Jimmy Kimmel did a comedy routine.
- The Top 6 Men performed a medley of "Summer of '69" and "Heaven", with Bryan Adams appearing later and performing a new single, "I Thought I'd Seen Everything", as well as "I Need Somebody".
- ZZ Top and David Cook performed "Sharp Dressed Man".
- Graham Nash and Brooke White performed "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
- Jonas Brothers performed "SOS".
- Auditioner Renaldo Lapuz performed "We're Brothers Forever" with the University of Southern California marching band.
- OneRepublic and David Archuleta performed "Apologize".
- Jordin Sparks performed her single "One Step at a Time".
- A comedy video starring Gladys Knight, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. showed Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia" while Stiller, Black, and Downey portrayed "The Pips". Ryan Seacrest joked that it was a rare 1972 audition video. All the proceeds from the video (funded by the three actors) were donated to charity.
- Carrie Underwood performed her single "Last Name".
- The Top 12 performed a medley of "Faith", "Father Figure", and "Freedom! '90" by George Michael. Michael himself later appeared on stage to perform "Praying for Time".
- David Cook performed the winner's single "The Time of My Life".
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