Idol Live with Nicole!!! FINALE...WINNNER ANNOUNCED!!!

Okay so let me re-iterate how lackluster I thought last night's finale performance show was. Pretty disappointed by it actually. Wonder if tonight's show will be any better. Surprisingly we haven't really heard of anybody who is supposed to be performing tonight (other than the Top 13). I'm pretty sure they usually announce at least SOME of the performers, but I am almost positive I don't know of a single one. Guess the show should be full of surprises! I am predicting SCOTTY as the winner, although I think Lauren won last night (slightly).

• World Record set...over 122 million votes cast last night! Almost 3/4 of a billion votes this season total.
• Ryan's bow tie is back tonight and Randy seems to have bought one for himself too.
• Lauren and Scotty join Ryan, dressed in all white.
• Lori Loughlin in the audience!!! Its nice that Aunt Becky is supporting DJ :)
• David Cook is also shown in the audience
• Shots of the viewing parties in Lauren and Scotty's hometowns. No former idol there this season to interview audience members
• Top 13 perform "Born This Way". YES! The group numbers are back!! They are all dressed in white and silver. The choreography is actually pretty good and they are lip syncing so I'm not hating it at all!
• James Durbin is the first to perform with Judas Priest. Hmm never thought I'd see them on American Idol. The lead singer is kinda scary, which I'm sure is how its supposed to be. James and he both have on very spiky clothing so if they were to fall into the crowd it would hurt pretty good! Of course there is pyro on stage with James. James' vocals may not be perfect all the time, but he sure knows how to entertain. The finale would have been so much better if he had been in it! Goodness!! Almost got a headache from the end of that! Ryan actually seems speechless after that.
• Now we get a roast of Randy aka "The Veteran". We get clips of Randy's repetitive rhetorical questions. Even Steven, who has only been there for a couple weeks during the auditions, knows what Randy is going to say next. We then get a sarcastic "Randy always knows how to spot the front runner" followed by clips of him SCREAMING "...in it to win it!!!" to Pia, Jacob, Haley, Scotty, Stefano, Lauren, James, and I'm sure some other people that I forgot. Well played video clip people!!!
• Oy, Jacob is next performing with Kirk Franklin. Gladys Knight then joins them on stage. Gladys must have Taio Cruz's mic from last night because hers goes out for a couple seconds too. We get a text number at the bottom of the screen so we can text a $10 donation to Red Cross for Disaster relief. You can text "Red Cross" to 90999 if you are interested in helping. Jacob really needs to sing this genre of music because he is actually not annoying me at all tonight (yet).
• Judas Priest followed by Kirk Franklin...nice diversity there Idol!!
• Casey Abrams performs next....with Jack Black...while singing "Fat Bottomed Girls". Well this isn't the best vocal, but it sure is entertaining. This is just all kinds of surprising tonight. Gospel song followed up by "Fat Bottomed Girls". They are joined by four SKINNY female dancers. OMG, that was just insane :). 
• The ladies (minus Lauren) of the Top 13 perform "Single Ladies". We get to see Karen and Ashton again, who I almost completely forgot about already. Next up is "Irreplaceable". Looks like we are getting a Beyonce medley. Loving Haley during the "If I Were a Boy" segment. Ashton is pretty good too. Pia reminds us that she got voted out WAY too early!! And after singing parts from half of her CD, Beyonce herself is on stage performing "Crazy in Love" with the girls. Group hug at the end of the performance.
• Next up is Steven's aka "The Loose Cannon" video salute and this should be great with all of his bizarre one liners including "Flicka flacka firecracker sis boom bah", "Slap that baby on the A** and call me Christmas", "Whats with the juju bees on your ooh ooh bees", "Hell fire save matches, f*ck a duck and see what hatches (my fave!)". We also get to see him being bleeped a lot and perverted with the (underage) girls. Apparently there was stuff they couldn't broadcast too.
• Haley is next performing with...Tony Bennett??? Well there's just something for everyone tonight now isn't there. Well that was a strange pairing, but they did pretty decent. Ryan lets us know that Tony turns 85 this year.
• Jennifer's aka "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" package is next. We get clips of various contestants flirting with her. This clip also makes fun of Randy once more since he has to "take credit" for every compliment she gets.
• TLC perform next with Lil Jon and once again some of the ladies of the Top 13. Ahh yes a 90's flashback!!! They perform "No Scrubs" and "Waterfalls".
• Scotty performs "Live Like You Were Dying" with Tim McGraw. This may be my favorite performance so far. Tim was named the "Most Played Artist on the Radio in the last 10 years"
• After commercial, Ryan is with Randy and Steven, but Jennifer is no where in sight....
• Oh good, now we get the bad audition people. First up is the guy who wanted to be a DJ like Ryan. He introduces us to the "Unsung Heroes" segment. We get clips of people's auditions who I am sure I mentioned in my audition posts.
• Marc Anthony performs. No clue what he is singing since it is all in Spanish. Jennifer appears on stage with him, playing the role of some creepy stalker dancer. Girl can dance though.
• Next we get a video of the contestants talking about being eliminated. Casey says America must really hate him because he got eliminated twice. LOL! Stefano says James was the most shocking elimination. Casey doesn't seem to like that answer. He says "Are you kidding me! I was supposed to win it! The magazines said 'Casey's going to win"". They then make fun of his first elimination. Casey says the doctor had to come get him and he dropped the microphone. Casey then makes fun of how James cried when he was voted off. This is seriously some funny stuff. Pia then shows up as Casey and James are arguing with a "Most Shocking" sash on and tiara. HA! Great stuff!!!
• They Top 13 Guys perform a medley. Stefano shows off his high range and his stripper dance moves. Let me just say, he would make a great male dancer :). Paul and his cute, white teethed self then takes over lead vocals. James then sings lead on "What's new Pussycat" and I can't help but hear this song in a perverse way! Scotty joins the guys on stage to sing some old school country song. Did Lauren sing with the girls and I didn't notice?? This is the weirdest medley ever!! Jacob gets his chance in the spotlight next, followed by Casey. I have no clue what half of these songs are, but these guys sure are entertaining. LOVE THEM (most of them)!!!Tom Jones joins them on stage to sing "Its Not Unusual" and I seriously hope they bust out some Carlton Banks dance moves!! THEY DO!!! LOVING THIS FOR REALS!!! Jack Black is doing the Carlton too in the audience!! I seriously loved all of that!
• One last Ford Music Video this season to "Whenever You Remember" and we get a recap of all the Ford videos.
• This year Ford gave the favorite TEACHER of Lauren and Scotty each a trip to the finale. Aww how nice!! Scotty and Lauren then present them both with keys to a brand new Ford Focus. Ryan then tells Scotty and Lauren that they get keys to ANY Ford car that they want! Awesome!!
• Lady Gaga performs "Edge of Glory" and this should be all kinds of interesting. For a Lady Gaga performance, this is actually pretty low key. She forgot her clothes again, but that seems to be normal for her. I'm really liking that song!!
• Lauren performs "Before He Cheats" with Carrie Underwood. She starts off pretty low, but I'm wondering if her voice is still messed up. Love seeing Carrie again!! Steven seems to love seeing Carrie too since she is getting his creepy look of the night.
• Lee DeWyze in the audience!
• We get to hear what the other contestants think about Lauren and Scotty. Starts off nice and sweet and then the guys add some humor. Stefano says "we have two sixth graders in the competition and they're kicking everyone's a**." Paul points out that they can't even go to R rated movies and Stefano says "wasn't American Juniors canceled a while ago". Casey says they are just learning cursive. Casey then adds "Thanks a lot America for making us feel stupid". Loved that too!!
• Beyonce is back to perform her new single "One plus One". I don't know if the lighting is supposed to be this way, but we can't really see her, just a silhouette of her. There we go, now we can see her. Nice job Beyonce!
• Lori Loughlin got a seat closer to the stage than David Cook. NICE!!
• Bono and The Edge perform songs from the Broadway show Spiderman, while Spidey himself flies through the audience. This kid is pretty cute! Looks a little like Kris Allen.
• Steven Tyler performs next. Love me some Aerosmith! He is playing piano too. Its nice his bell bottoms from the 70's still fit him! While listening to him sing "Dream On" all I can think about it Danny Gokey's horrible performance of it. Steven shows him how it's done.
• Time for the winner announcement!!!! The British envelope delivery guy confirms that the results are accurate. Here's to hoping the winner acts just as great when they hear the announcement as Lee did last season!
• THE WINNER OF AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 10 IS......SCOTTY McCREERY!!!!
• Well he didn't almost throw up like Lee did, but he did cry so he passes lol. Big hug from Lauren followed by a group hug. AWWWW he says he and Lauren have been together since Day 1 and they are going to stay together. How cute!!! Totally think those two are an item! Ryan thanks the judges and everyone for "one of our best seasons ever". I agree. The show last night was a little boring, but overall it was a pretty great season.
• While singing, Scotty hugs every member of his family that is there, therefore doesn't get much singing in during it, but its pretty sweet. He then starts laughing and I find that amusing. After hugging every member of his family, he then hugs every member of the Top 13 and tells James "love you man". Then gets to Lauren and says "love you baby" and gives her a nice kiss on the cheek, followed by an extended hug. Proceeds to hug the remaining contestants and judges, thanks everyone "so much", and sits on stage with his head hung down in disbelief and enjoys his confetti shower. LOVED IT!!! The coronation song is always my favorite part!!!

Well there you have it! Season 10 of American Idol comes to a close. Not surprised Scotty beat out Lauren at all since I am sure he had the teens and tweens voting for him like crazy. Kinda bored last night, but a pretty great show tonight. Didn't seem to drag on at all! Nice job!! This is one of my favorite seasons, right up there with Kris' and David's season (I also really enjoyed Jordin's season since Lakisha was from my hometown). Loved a good portion of the contestants and they seem like a fun, entertaining group who actually seem to all love each other. Loved the Stefano/James bromance, and the Lauren/Scotty romance is pretty adorable too. Lots of like able people this season and Scotty seems like a sweet southern gentleman. Hopefully he has a career a little more successful than poor Lee. I am sure Lauren will be fine too, they both will hopefully have good careers at their young ages.

I hope you all enjoyed my Idol recaps! Thanks to everyone for reading, and for those of you who left me some love in the form of comments, I appreciate it greatly!!! Feel free to leave me some more one last time!!!