Well, the "American Idol" season is over. 15 million Americans will have to find something else to do on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The last two episodes could not have been more anticlimactic, as the dismissal of Melinda Doolittle set up a showdown between Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks that wasn't really a competition from the outset. Sparks, who had everything to gain, sang her little heart out on that unspeakably awful contest-winning single, "This Is My Now," and Blake, who probably didn't care in the least whether he won or not, politely and professionally handled the number but it must have been obvious to him that the "Idol" producers knew the score. I can't tell you what the final vote totals were like, but I suspect Jordin must have won in a landslide, and good for her if she did. I must admit that the chances are very slim that I will ever think about her or listen to her sing again.

Blake is another matter. One aspect of the "Idol" star cycle that I hadn't really considered having not been a fan of the show before this year is the way the contestants are really corseted while remaining in the game on the show. Some of those who have stayed in the limelight post-"Idol" have turned out to be no more or less than how they appeared, but not all of them. Chris Daughtry's amazing commercial success undoubtedly owes a lot to the singer's bold efforts to establish a musical personality of his own, outside of that shaped for him by the "Idol" judges and producers. Kelly Clarkson is currently experiencing growing pains trying to do the same thing.

But what's particularly interesting about Blake is that he's most inspired by musical genres that "Idol" eschews entirely, and he crafted his whole campaign to the final largely by keeping his head above water on all the unsuitable material he had forced upon him and blowing it out of the (beat) box on the rare occasions where the format allowed him a choice in his wheelhouse. Blake's most underrated asset might be his ability to sing a song that is clearly a piece of garbage like "This Is My Now" and assert at once his superior tastes (this song is beneath me) and his essential good temperment (but I have to sing it and I have to sing it their way, so I'll at least give like a 70% effort). Blake's post-final interview on EW.com is a good read because it gives some hints about what Blake might be like when not affably paying his respects to the "Idol" machine. "That track would never be on my album," he says of "This Is My Now." Will collaborations with 90's alternative has-beens like 311 and Better Than Ezra lead Blake to the toppermost of the poppermost? Of course not. But like I've said a million times before, I'm totally curious to hear what a Blake Lewis debut album is going to sound like. I can tell you right now what Jordin Sparks' record is going to sound like, and it won't be pretty.