Vince Gill and Dolly Parton sing "Pretty Flowers" on the CD.

I thought he had already (!?)

Ouch! I feel even worse for Steve having to have Sarver and Megan sing it now. Talk about your steps down.

All in all, this was probably the best finale yet in terms of guests and non-group performances (although I missed last year). Good show, happy with the outcome, but it really did seem to be between a couple of good guys.

Glad to see Kris win. He was the most consistent, and he grew the most during the competition. After Allison, he was probably my favorite in the whole competition (at least in the top 13 since the judges basically buried everybody else), and I thought he deserved it more than Allison did.

Wouldn't have had a problem with Adam winning though. He is a very talented guy. I think a lot of the problems that I had with him would be solved if he would just tone it down a bit. His winning would certainly have been better than that tool Gokey.

I have to say that Kris winning was a victory for this season. The judges basically hand selected almost the entire top 13. Only Kris, and to a lessor extent Allison, snuck in. Look at the talented people they blew off in those early rounds to pimp up their selected few. Kris was not supposed to be here. With little to no TV time prior to his singing, he was supposed to be "canon fodder" in the round of 36. Kudos to him for sneaking into the top 13 and then improving and growing as an artist through the competition.

I didn't start out a fan of Kris. I dismissed him as a pretty boy Castro type. I was wrong, and his performances soon became the highlight of the show for me just to see what he was going to do.

Agreed. What I really liked this season was that it was the first time since probably season two where I really thought there was true comraderie between the final contestants and I really appreciated the humility they showed. As with Clay and Reuben, I think either contestant would have been happy regardless of the outcome.

While I preferred Adam's performances overall this season, I have absolutely no problem with Kris winning. He's a good, likable performer. Mostly happy it wasn't Gokey, who I think was even more overpraised than Adam and had a voice that never matched the praise.

Still I've got to wonder. Did Kris ultimately win because of the people voting for him or because of the people voting against Adam?

I thought Adam should win, but having Kris win isn't a bad thing. He does have a nice singer-songwriter style of voice / music, and I'm sure that Adam will be fronting a band shortly after the summer tour.

One thing though, when Adam was singing "Beth", I kept thinking "yeah, I bet you'll be out playing with the boys all night".

I can't wait for Nikki McKibbon's 8 track to come out. I'm totally going to buy it.

The duet between Kris and Keith Urban was the highlight of the evening for me. Very nice.

LOL! For sure. You know, I bet in 10 years Adam will be doing drag. Seriously. Just look at all the pictures of him on the internet. The whole club kid thing. Dressing up in wigs, outrageous outfits and full on make up.

Agree. Best song of the night. Great stuff.

What I thought was the most amazing thing of the night: The show said it was going to run 2:07 and it actually did.

And way to go Kris!! Congrats.

All in all a very entertaining show.

I thought that too. It seemed he had one leg that he was practically dragging. I ended up staring at his feet through the end of the song waiting for it to happen again.

yeah, but he'd really like it!

big props to Kris. glad he won.

very happy for the underdog and AI cannon fodder Kris Allen winning. I hope the producers learn their lesson to stop trying to cram someone down the American people's throat. If they do count the votes (which I now believe they do), it's the people's choice ... not the producers and not the judges. Here's hoping Kris becomes like Carrie Underwood when everyone was seemingly rooting for Bo.

ETA: I agree. I have deleted the link because I don't believe it is accurate.

That would equal an average of 13 votes dialed through by every person in the state. Given the problems people had dialing in, me thinks Fox-16 just might be exaggerating a wee bit.

Adam will find more fame and fortune than Kris in the long run. But yes, let's be grateful Gokey didn't slip into the top 2 this season.

Doubtful.

Kris comes off as pretty bland to me. Nice kid, sure, but he's not a very strong singer. Good for him, but his comments about how Adam deserved to win was not him just being nice, it sounded 100% genuine.

I have no doubt about this at all. In 5 years I'll bet Adam is much more successful than Kris. Kris is a nice guy, but he's boring as snot.

Adam is dated as a performer and a musician. I don't think either of them are going to be super successful 5 years from now. I think it's going to be someone like Danny or Matt who will find a niche that will ultimately have a longer career. Who knows though. Kelly and Carrie are really still the only relevant winners today, so you never know.

personal attacks, real classy..not liking his music is one thing but
it shows where your taste is..(in your mouth)

any screen caps of Kara's smokin' bikini bod?

Sure, if you're talking about the Broadway crowd.

Well, perhaps the koffeehouse crowd will be a more lucrative market than I'd imagined.