Susannah Searson Is Queen Of The World!

Idolites -

With Lee's taking of the Idol title, Susannah Searson is the winner of the Idol pool!

With the top 14 spots paying out, we actually ended up with 18 people in the money as five people tied for 14th place.

Here are the money winners:

1. Susannah Searson $300

2. Sherri Nichols $150

3. John Walker $100

4. Nancy Ging (2) $75

5T. Catherine Snarr $45

5T. Beth Shanaman $45

5T. Sue Rauda $45

8T. Gavin Fysh $30

8T. Christian Wiehl $30

10T. Anne Patella $22.50

10T. Steve Snarr $22.50

10T. Brad White $22.50

10T. Isabel DeVera $22.50

14T. Charlene Fysh $4.00

14T. Christopher Wiehl $4.00

14T. Leah Soenke Ruona $4.00

14T. Nancy Ging (1) $4.00

14T. Steve Fysh $4.00

I am still waiting on payment from the following:

* candrade

* paulandjoni

* eeemmm

* sugarplum

* eatsmart

* NoJo1

* NoJo2

* Ali Anderson

* Scott Anderson

That represents $90 of the pool winnings. I will wait to hear from the people above until I pay out the winners. If I don't hear back by 6/7 (when I return from a business trip), I will have to subtract the amount of money I haven't received from the total pot. I will try and do it evenly amongst all the winning slots.

...and now on to the show.

Being this was the finale, I decided to go old school, bullet-style format on my comments...enjoy!

• Seacrest opens the show with the two-handed mic hold again. What the hell is that?
• Lucky - "Why is Randy wearing that girly, man shirt with flowers and butterflies?"
• How many more times can Lee and Crystal say, "Incredible. Amazing. Journey."?
• Seacrest points out that over the entire season, Lee and Crystal are within less than 2% in total votes. He didn't say anything about how close last night's vote was. I'm guessing Lee won fairly handily, about 65% to 35%?
• Siobhan wins for best Catholic School outfit! Michael is the worst. I guess the store only makes them three sizes too small for him.
• Alice Cooper on Idol? Leah to Lucky - "The thing about Alice Cooper is that he's as normal as your father." Lucky - "But my father isn't normal." Nice!
• God Bless Kris Allen. He gave me a signed Christmas Card and by all accounts is one of the nicest guys in entertainment. That song sucked!
• Oh my! "How Deep Is Your Love?" continues a painful parade of washed up music acts. Barry's pot belly was holding on tightly in that satin shirt. He should give up some of those pounds to Robin, who looks completely anorexic.
• If you're going to bring on singers from the past, don;t you want to make sure they can still sing? Michael Lynche actually shows much respect to Michael McDonald, by not showing him up.
• Norman Gentle sighting! Prediction 1 correct!
• Loved Dane Cook's song to Simon...very funny!
• So what did Christina Aguilera do to earn a 3 song mini-concert? Despite the dumb hairdo and butt cheeks hanging out of her shorts, she sounds really good...and I don't even really like her.
• Ricky Gervais...yes!
• So I really picked a shy guy, with glasses like Harry Caray, limited vocal range and a neck tattoo from L.A. to win this thing? I'm an idiot.
• Hall & Oates! Well, at least Daryl Hall hasn't totally lost his voice (like most every act so far) and they both looked great.
• I love that Crystal's dad has a Mr. Bill doll in the front pocket of his black leather vest.
• ...and now Alanis Morisette! Very good duet with Crystal. Best of the night so far. They even cleaned up "You Outta Know", which Leah just pointed out is an inappropriate song for them to sing on Idol.
• Carrie Underwood, Queen of Idol, doesn't have to sing with anyone else.
• Brett Michaels...nice grab Idol producers! Possibly the hottest guy in entertainment right now. That may be the one and only time I actually enjoyed that song.
• The oldies keep coming with Chicago! Where's Peter Cetera? Boy, these high notes are not sounding too good...even from Lee. They'll be touring with the Doobie Brothers this Summer...really: www.chicagotheband.com/tour-dates/
• Pants On The Ground, the biggest song of Season 9. Ryan Seacrest just summed up everything wrong with this season. Way to go William Hung!!
• Paula...Prediction 2 correct (thanks Tony!). Wow, I totally forgot how much I missed her incoherrent rants. That feeling of being uncomfortable, not knowing what will come out of her mouth next, because you know she doesn't know either...ahhh!
• The Idol Song of Champions "Together We Are One". Wow, so perfectly cheesy. Where the hell is David Cook? Kelly Clarkson - WTF? Nice bra. Hey, Justin Guarini got his curly locks back! Kimberly Caldwell is looking quite slutty...nice! Simon doesn't cry...Prediction 3 wrong.
• The geriatric tour rolls on with Joe Cocker forgetting lyrics to his own song and screeching so sadly as Lee & Crystal look on.
• Seacrest is ready to announce the results and he goes right back to the two hand mic hold.
• Lee wins. Prediction 4 correct.
• Crystal's loss keeps the streak alive, as no favorite going into the Top 12 has ever won.
• Pool Boy writes his final Idol blog. Prediction likely correct.

Yes, I think I am pulling a Simon Cowell and bowing out. I can see me pulling a Brett Favre and deciding to give it another go next season, but at this point I feel like it's my time. With a new job that finds me on the road, two kids with increasingly busy schedules, and a fading passion for all that is Idol, I think it may be the time to hang it up.

I will get with James about keeping the pool portion alive on his website, so we all may still wager on Idol 10, but the blogging and commentary are most likely done.

Thanks to everyone for all your support and lively retorts. I'll get the winnings out the week of 6/7. Hopefully, everyone will pay.

Pool Boy Out....for good!

Crystal Dominates, But Won't Win

Idolites -

Well, it came down to the big, 3 song night for Crystal and Lee and Crystal pulled out all the stops. Usually the finale ends up being somewhat of a letdown in terms of performances. The song choices are generally not good and the contestants tend to be a bit nervous.

That was still the case last night to a large degree, but Crystal was able to pull out one of the best performances of the season to cap the show and give her a glimmer of hope at taking down the Idol title.

Before I get to the performances, did anyone else notice that Seacrest kept holding his microphone with two hands all night? He looked like Aaron Kelly singing in the early weeks.

LEE #1 - "The Boxer" Let me say right off the bat that I hate the fact that every season finale, they have the contestants sing a song they have already done during the season. It's a no win situation. The reason we like a performance is because it takes us by surprise and has an element of emotion that cannot be recreated weeks later. Lee did an OK job with this song last night. As the judges said, however, he seemed a bit reserved and holding back. He did seem pretty nervous.

CRYSTAL #1 - "Me & Bobby McGee" Sigh. Again, it just seemed a bit forced. Crystal definitely did a better job with her encore performance than Lee. She showed the passion we haven't seen much of over the season. In short, you can tell that she really wants to win this thing.

LEE #2 - "Everybody Hurts" The producers song choice is always the best one. Lee did a nice job...much better than the first song...but still seems a bit 'deer in the headlights' to me. One thing is certain...Simon LOVES Lee. I think Simon wants Lee to win more than Lee does. He can't bring himself to say anything negative about him. In fact, I noticed last night that for the first time in Finale history, Simon didn't declare a 'Winner' after each round of songs. I think because he knew Lee was getting killed and didn't want to bring him down or cost him votes.

CRYSTAL #2 - "Black Velvet" So, the song itself seemed like a good choice for Crystal. However, they stick her with a heavy metal version of the song. Then, they have her dress up in a too-tight, black satin dress with (way too) high heels. She looked terrified as she waddled down the huge staircase, looking down at each step. The producers did her no favors on this one. The judges were excited, but to me it didn't capture Crystal as an artist at all. Thus, I really didn't enjoy it at all. Simon was also correct in saying the song itself has been way overused on the show.

LEE #3 - "Beautiful Day" Alrighty then! The producers finally figured out (it only took 8 seasons) that the Idol's first single always sucks. They've tried songwriting contests and even threw Kara under the bus last year, but the song never works. Someone got smart and decided to let the contestants do a cover of an already successful song that actually fits their vocal style. The only problem with this song is that it didn't fit Lee's vocal style at all. It felt like he was overreaching on many of the notes and never really got comfortable. Simon, however, bailed him out again, telling him what a great guy he is.

CRYSTAL #3 - "Up To The Mountain" Fantastic song choice! Interesting that this song is also on Susan Boyle's debut album, but when you find something good, I guess you roll with it. For me, that performance was total Crystal. It was her style of song, she was dressed like she would dress and she was able to just sit, play and sing, which is what she does best. One of the top performances I've seen in the finale show.

After Crystal finished her dominating performances last night, I was actually thinking that she may have a chance to win. If the winner were determined by the last performances, then we'd be looking at Crystal as the next Idol for sure. I just think Lee had too much momentum going into this week. Plus, with Casey being eliminated, I think many of his votes would swing to Lee anyway.

PREDICTIONS:

• Lee will win.
• Paula Abdul will be on the show tonight (thanks Tony!).
• Norman Gentle will be on the show tonight (he recently recorded a farewell song to Simon, so I have a hunch).
• There will be two or three cheesy medleys by the Top 12.
• Seacrest will do or say at least three things that will make the audience uncomfortable.
• Simon will shed a tear.
• Tomorrow will be Pool Boy's last Idol blog....ever.

Enjoy the Finale tonight!

Pool Boy Out