“Outstanding” was not what I had expected, but that is exactly the final word which spewed out of Simon Cowell’s mouth as he ended his reign as judge on American Idol. It was obvious from the start of some bland performances last night, that the notoriously harsh judge had a mission to stay relatively kind on his last stand as judge on America’s #1 TV show.

The American Idol finale was a spectacle of big tent proportions, to say the least. This was my first time attending the grand brouhaha, though I have been to many regular season broadcasts of the show. The difference: The regular season shows are a quaint “family reunion kinda event” of 500 people held at a small set at CBS Studios (Yes, CBS) in the suburbs of Los Angeles; The finale is held in the gargantuan 7000-seat Nokia Theater LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, making the smaller regular season set look like a toy model of the finale one. While the excitement is palpable on the CBS Studios set, making each member of the audience feel like an integral part of the show because every one has to be camera-ready every second of the time, the absolute reverse is true at the Nokia Theater: The cameras were no where to be seen past the first 20 rows; I felt lost in this gigantic auditorium, and it was obvious that so did the finalists and some of the crew. There were more mistakes made live and on camera during the finale than the entire regular season combined: From finalist Crystal Bowersox’ opening run to multiple wrong directions and audibly on TV saying “I have no idea where to go” and dropping her mic, to the random shots of audience feet, to the obvious look of fear on the other finalist Lee DeWyze’s face while performing. Perhaps Idol has gotten too big for its own good; I much more would have preferred the smaller stage for the most important night in the two finalists’ lives. I think they may have also. I know Lee definitely would have. He had shined at CBS; he cowered at Nokia.

Let’s start at the beginning of the day. A friend of mine who works for American Idol invited me to the show. With hard tickets in hand, it meant I did not have to get to the Nokia Theater at the crack of dawn for hopes of getting in stand by. I got there around 3:30 PM and was standing at a blocked off corner talking to a guard when Justin Guarini just walked up to me. Only the Celeb Magnet would randomly and quite unknowingly be standing at the place where the VIPs of the show would be entering the arena. There was no other person or paparazzi there. Justin was cool and took time to speak t o me even though he was clearly in a rush.

Then came other season 9 finalists Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Lee DeWyze and Tim Urban – they were dropped off OUTSIDE of the gated area and not allowed in where other VIPs like Cowell and DeGeneres were welcomed in.

Oh, and then there was Ellen…well, there was Ellen’s back…

Obviously, I was at the right spot at ALMOST the right time. Had I been there a bit earlier, I would have seen them all. Other than myself, the only non-guard or VIP whom I saw were these three fans nearby, waiting for Simon to drive by, though after only a short bit, they got a bit tired and sat down.

After I took these pictures, I met up with my friend with the ticket and we walked up to the Nokia Theater. The picture below is of the line of standby walk-ins for the show.

Good news for this bunch was that they all were able to get in as seat fillers: Sitting in chairs while the VIP’s with tickets need a break. It amazes me how many breaks VIP’s need during a one-hour show. REALLY?? You can’t sit straight through a one-hour show? As we got closer to the entrance, we saw the line of young people who the show had picked out to stand in the mush pit near the stage. No wonder these kids get chosen; look at their enthusiasm; random girl is smiling at my camera having no idea who I am….or perhaps she did recognize me from CelebMagnet.com.

The courtyard outside the Nokia was filled with Idol alumni who had returned to their old stomping grounds pretty much like the popular high school kids that keep going back to high school years after graduation to relive their glory years: Scott MacIntyre; Anoop Desai; Matt Giraud; Chris Richardson; Constantine Maroulis; Kevin Covais; Blake Lewis: Brooke White; Kristy Lee Cook. This is what the outside courtyard looks like:

We got to our seats which were pretty amazing – dead center with a straight shot of the stage. To my right was this really cool couple, a duo of music promoters, (wife was “Jane” but I didn’t catch the hubbie’s name) who had come from Connecticut as guests of Katie Stevens, one of the top 12 finalists. With about 20 minutes left before live air time, “Corey”, Idol’s comedic warm up guy came out and got the audience up to its feet. He pulled some people out of the crowd and brought them up to stage to dance for us all. He walked all throughout the 7000-person arena, handing out American Idol t-shirts and iPods to random attendees. That was enough to stir the crowd to utter excitement for the show. He then introduced the judges as each came out at different times. He introduced Simon last and the crowd went into a mad convulsion, screaming with no end in sight. Amusingly so, the crowd went just as insane for Ryan, though I can understand given my complete infatuation with the man. Then came the other season 9 finalists. Corey then explained that each two top finalists would be singing three songs: first one being the contestant’s favorite song previously performed this season, second a song chosen by Executive Producer of the show, Simon Fuller. Last song would be a song chosen by Idol and would be the contestant’s first single should they win.  Among this chaos, we heard the stage manager over the PA system say, “90 seconds to airtime”. “How could 7000 people settle down in 90 seconds” raced through my mind. But just like that, everyone quickly took to their places per Corey’s request; everyone except Crystal who clearly did not know where she was supposed to go as the show opened. The seat fillers quickly ran into the arena as well and were ushered into seats left empty by no-show VIP ticket holders. Corey instructed the audience to remain silent until Ryan announced live, “This is American Idol.” With that, the show started.

Crystal Bowersox had won the coin toss and like any smart Idol contestant knows, she picked to perform second. Each contestant alternated songs, with Lee DeWyze starting the show with The Boxer as his first song choice. He looked amazingly nervous but was quite moving in his delivery. Simon told him afterwards that he lacked passion in his performance and went on to elaborate, “that was a kiss on the cheek when I wanted a kiss on the lips.” Oh Simon, we’re so gonna miss you. For his second song Lee was asked by Simon Fuller to sing REM’s Everybody Hurts. His voice powerfully filled the entire arena and the 16-year old robot girls in the front mush pit clapped in unison (as they are instructed to do by the audience coordinators). The crowd absolutely loved this performance but Simon told Lee he looked “nervous”.  For his last song, Lee sang U2’s Beautiful Day. Oh Lee, you are my favorite amongst a group of not-so great contestants, but that song made it clear you ain’t no Bono. There were clear off key moments as Lee started off very rough. The crowd felt the uneasiness and got up to its feet to cheer Lee on which seems to have helped; slightly. There is such a humble sexiness about Lee that made me forget the uneasiness in his usually smooth as silk raspy voice, so, I rooted him on. But he was so awful on that song that Simon took unusual mercy on him and didn’t even address the performance.  He simply told Lee that someone like Lee is what the show is all about and that Lee has been a hard working contestant all season and remained nice and humble. Simon, dear Simon, are you trying to leave us on a nice note?

At the various commercial breaks, the judges left the arena for makeup touch ups and smoke breaks (Simon) but amazingly got back to their seats just in the nick of time as the stage manager would say over the PA system: “8,7,6,5,4,3,2, APPLUASE”. Corey would come back on mic during breaks and point out various Idol alumni like Brooke White and Kevin Covais. “Check out my buddy, right here, it’s my old buddy, America!” “Hey Kevin, do people still call you ‘Chicken Little?’ ” So wrong. Let the kid grow up and get past his Idol  nightmare.

You don’t have to be a musical expert to realize Crystal was the clear winner of the night, though I personally think Lee will end up winning cause America always votes for the underdog. She sounded amazingly crisp on her first song of Me and Bobby McGee and brought the crowd to its feet. As opposed to the smaller shows broadcast from CBS Studios, we could not see the judges on the giant screens during their comments, just their back, which made the crowd so bored, they resumed to talking or yelling during comments, making it extremely difficult to hear the judges. The crowd was overwhelming in either their “boos” or chants of “I love you Crystal” and “I love you Ellen”. For her second song as Fuller’s pick, Crystal sang Black Velvet. Personally, I don’t think the song suited her voice but she did have a couple of amazing high notes which pushed her ahead of Lee in this round as well. Simon provided the comic relief by saying he was allergic to that song but that Crystal “nailed it.” There was one painful moment which did not come across clearly to the TV audience due to some creative camera work: Crystal was extremely uncomfortable in her high heels and the high school prom dress as she walked down the staircase; She looked down at every single step as she made her entrance into the song, having to walk down what seemed to be a mountain of steps. For her last song, Crystal was pitch perfect on Up to the Mountain and the backup singers harmonized beautifully with her voice. This was Crystal’s best performance in weeks; she had blossomed at the perfect time. This is where Simon ended the night by calling her performance, “outstanding”. And outstanding it was, even though I have a hard time visualizing how they could possibly make that song a hit if she ends up winning the crown. Jane, the music promoter sitting next to me agreed. The night ended with a smooth sounding but terribly stiff winner of Pop Idol, Britain’s version of American Idol.

Here are some things you missed watching on TV at home: The lyrics to Lee and and Crystal’s final two songs were up on the main prompter, something I have never seen happen during the regular season. Also, on TV, you may have seen Ellen and Kara give their Coke cups to the people in the mush pit but what wasn’t captured on TV during Lee’s final words, is that Simon pointed directly at one of the bodyguards standing to his right and lead him with his point to two young women directly in front of Simon in the mush pit. One of them had fainted, and the other one was holding her up. The bodyguard raced to help her, but the fainting woman still ended up on the floor while Ryan read Lee’s numbers to America as if there wasn’t a minor medical emergency unfolding ten feet in front of him. After the end of the show, Corey told us that the woman who had fainted had donated blood earlier in the day and said anyone coming the next day should refrain from giving blood. Guess clapping in unison for an hour is hard on a blood-givers body.

After the show ended, I walked back to my secret gated off spot and got some parting shots of Simon and Ryan getting into their cars.
 

In closing, I just want to add that last year, I voted over 1500 for finalist Adam Lambert, who ended up losing the crown in the end but has by far since outshined the winner, Kris Allen. This year, I had no urge to even make a single call. Not one. Although Crystal clearly won the night performance wise, Dial Idol has Lee winning by a clear margin. So, tune in tonight to see who is crowned as season 9’s American Idol winner because if Dial Idol is correct as they usually are, we are in for an upset of apocalyptic proportions. Well, not that big an upset because neither contestant was that great.