Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Random notes in the wake of Lee DeWyze’s Wednesday night victory over Crystal Bowersox.

Ratings drop

Rueters is reporting that Wednesday’s Idol episode attracted 24.4 million viewers, the fewest to watch a season finale since 22.8 watched Kelly Clarkson become the original Idol back in 2002.

That marks a drop of 15 percent from the 28.8 million that watched Kris Allen win a year ago and a decline of 23 percent from the 31.4 million that watched David Cook prevail in season seven.

Overall, Rueters reports that ratings were down about 9 percent this year, though Idol retained its crown as the nation’s most-watched show for the seventh straight year.

Things You Didn’t See on TV

Billboard.com again comes through with a list of 10 things we didn’t see watching the Idol finale at home on TV.

Most telling is this: Signs of support in the crowd ran about 25-1 in favor of Lee.

And a warm-up comedian spent the night asking fans in the audience who they voted for. Everyone seemed to say Lee.

Go here for the rest of the list.

Lee left speechless

Lee DeWyze had imagined himself winning the Idol crown, singing “Beautiful Day” as the confetti fell. He’d thought about what he’d say if it happened.

So why was he caught speechless, looking literally dumbfounded when his name was announced at the close of Wednesday’s show?

“You think about what you want to say, but it all goes out of your head in that moment,” Lee told Ryan Seacrest in an interview aired on KISS-FM this morning.

Go here to hear the interview.

Crystal’s Bad Morning

Crystal had tweeted Tuesday that she’d endured a rough morning prior to the performance show. She spilled in an interview with Ryan Seacrest on KISS-FM.

Turns out she and her boyfriend split up that morning, and he headed home. That’s right, the very same day she was singing with the Idol crown on the line.

Crystal called it a mutual thing and complimented him for supporting her through the competition. “He wasn’t cool with the lifestyle. He’s a small-town guy. I’m a small-town girl, but I want this.”

Go here to hear the full interview.

Check Back Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Lee and Crystal are scheduled for conference call interviews with the media.

So check back in the late afternoon and I’ll be posting blogs on what they had to say. I’m sure we’ll be talking about their plans now that Idol is over.

The Missing Idol

One of the biggest questions after last night’s Idol finale: Where was David Cook?

In one of the night’s most special moments, all the former Idol winners gathered to sing during the tribute to Simon Cowell. All of them, that is, except the season seven champ.

His rep said he had a charity commitment last night. You’ll recall his team just raised more than $140,000 in the Race for Hope, a D.C., to fight brain cancer, the disease that claimed David’s brother.

David did send out this tweet last night: “Congrats to Lee DeWyze. So sorry I couldn’t be there to see all my fellow Idols. I’m there in spirit!!”

David was attending the 2nd annual Shadow Buddies Foundation Golf Classic when he filmed a vlog posted Wednesday in which he also announced that he’d be heading into the studio in June to start work on his next album.

Imbalanced Idol

I just talked to a co-worker and longtime Idol watcher who says he’s done with the show after watching Crystal Bowersox lose last night. And after watching Adam Lambert lose the year before. My wife said the same thing at the end of Wednesday’s show.

I think I’m more disturbed by the show’s imbalance than by Crystal’s runner-up status. No doubt she was the best singer. No doubt she clearly triumphed Tuesday night. But Lee DeWyze might be the more commercial of the two. His pre-Idol “Slumberland” CD sounds very good.

By imbalance, I mean the fact that females are facing an uphill climb on Idol these days. Those who vote, and vote a lot, clearly favor the “cute” guys. Earlier this week, I talked about that very subject with Allison Iraheta, the only gal to crack the top four in season eight.

“The audience of Idol is mostly girls,” she pointed out. “There are guys that watch it, but the girls are the ones that go crazy over the guys, such as Adam Lambert and Kris Allen and Matt Giraud. They like the good-looking guys. I can’t blame them.”

Does she have a suggestion on how Idol can correct the imbalance? Not really, Allison admitted.

I do. One phone, one vote. Or one computer, one vote. It’s one of my 10 tips for saving the show.

Simon wimps out

I blame the judges, in part, for the fact that Crystal didn’t win Tuesday night. Simon Cowell, in particular. Put simply, he wimped out on us.

Lee’s rendition of “Beautiful Day” on Tuesday was not very good. Certainly not the 10 out of 10 Simon declared he was looking for from the former paint store clerk on his third and final song of the night.

Yet instead of offering criticism, Simon congratulated Lee on how far he had come on Idol. The guy famous for his frankness was shockingly evasive in terms of critiquing that song. I guess he didn’t feel like rating it on a scale of 10. A 6 or 7, perhaps?

Then came a 10-out-of-10 — Crystal’s brilliant “Up to the Mountain.” Simon called it “outstanding.”

But he didn’t declare her the winner of the night, as she so obviously was. And Simon hasn’t shied away from declaring winners in the past. (Remember his incorrect prediction that David Archuleta had carried the night over David Cook two years ago.)