I finally got around to viewing the "American Idol" last night of competition and then the winner-announcement finale. When the results of the latter were spoiled for me by an accidental glance downwards on a web-portal site I was browsing past, I was pretty fired up for "Rocker David." I wish that my schedule had allowed me to watch things unfold in something closer to real time. If I had seen the abuse Cook took at the hands of the judges on last week's "showdown" show, I would have experienced much more of a catharsis watching him finally win.

The songs chosen during the final night of voting were inconsequential, as it turned out. The songwriting contest finalists were predictably drab, Clive Davis's choices were broad and obvious (playing like everyone else to David Archuleta's strengths!), and neither contestant knocked it out of the park with his personal selection. Archuleta, like Jordin Sparks last year, merely repeated his best-received vocal of the season, "Imagine." Cook tried to do something a little riskier but as he has done a few either times, he showed a rather poor sense for matching the material to the moment with a Collective Soul tune.

Two things were consistent -- Randy and Simon blatantly pimping for Archuleta, and Cook outsinging the youngster round after round. Cook's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" didn't come across with the anthemic qualities Davis ascribed to it but it at least grooved a little, unlike Little David's pretty, vacant "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." Both of the songwriting competition selections were far too awful to learn the names of, but again Cook's rocking approach was more lively than Archie's sincere, flat take.

So with the producers' bias for Archuleta dripping through every moment of the sing-off episode, how did the grand finale play out? With much pomp and circumstance, one more opportunity to watch Jason Castro and Amanda Overmyer struggle in those horrific Up With People group performances, and some brutal celebrity plugeos. Amid a neverending parade of musical numbers the memorable bits were Seal overwhelming Syesha Mercado, Carrie Underwood singing a song about shady sex, and Bryan Adams being still the lamest thing ever. The best part of the telecast, though, was improbably a pair of "Guitar Hero" commercials featuring the two finalists reenacting the Risky Business underpants scene. Way more amusing than anything else in the whole two hours.

So my DVR cut out, hilariously, at the exact moment Ryan Seacrest pronounced "...Cook." I could only see the very beginnings of Cook's and Archuleta's reactions.