LOS ANGELES – The winner of American Idol is… Phillip Phillips.
The 21-year old crooner from Leesburg, Georgia took home the title over San Diego’s Jessica Sanchez after receiving the majority of the world record 132 million votes that were cast for the winner on Tuesday night and has already released his winning single “Home” worldwide. Incredibly, People also reported that the singer went through eight different kidney surgeries during the competition which obviously didn’t affect him as he becomes the show’s eleventh winner.
The 2012 Idol finale shows themselves certainly had a more profound focus on the singing rather than the spectacle. Whereas last year’s finale featured high-profile acts that included the likes of Lady Gaga, Beyonce and U2, this season’s culminating episode was relatively understated. Winner Phillip Phillips collaborated with John Fogerty, Jessica Sanchez joined Jennifer Holliday and Neil Diamond, Reba, Chaka Khan and Rihanna all made appearances. The Idol judging panel also showed their pupils how its done as Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler (along with Aerosmith) both performed as well. While I appreciated the increased airtime for the Idol contestants on what will be their last time performing with each other in front of a national primetime audience, the aura and intrigue about who Nigel Lythgoe would surprise us with was missing.
As for the results themselves, this was truly the best season of American Idol ever. There is no hyperbole attached with that sentiment as nearly every Idol pundit I talked to agreed, said that most of the contestants in the Top 12 could have taken home the title and that this season’s competition might be the best of all time. In the grand scheme of analogies, I believe that reality fans will be discussing Phillips vs. Sanchez in the same way that boxing fans talk about Ali and Frazier or wrestling fans debate Hogan and Warrior. While Jessica undoubtedly had the best voice in the competition, it was Phillip’s ability to make popular songs his own that ultimately stood out.
The deeper analytical question is whether the trend of cute Caucasian guys creaming the competition will continue (how’s that for alliteration?) Ultimately, the teen demographic is not only what the Idol brand is built on, but also the reality audience in general. Simply put, without its mass market appeal to teen girls, I don’t know if the show would be entering into its twelfth season. The fact that six out of the last seven winners have all been Caucasian males (Taylor Hicks, David Cook, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze and Scotty McCreery) doesn’t mean that they aren’t the most talented, but that they definitely have an advantage when it comes to popular appeal.
The lasting power of American Idol is truly what makes it an incredible phenomenon. While it an almost impossible task to keep track of what Tamyra Gray, Jason Castro, or Sanjaya Malakar are doing these days because of how many singers the show produces, as a brand, it is just as buzzworthy now as it was back then. While watercooler discussion has been replaced by Twitter talk, the fact is that this still is easily the most popular show on television. Consider the fact that according to social analytics firm Bluefin Labs, this season of American Idol generated 5,956,134 total social comments, with last night’s finale drawing 1 million comments by itself. In Canada, CTV reports that the show drew 2.8 million viewers in Canada.
Here are some of my red carpet interviews and coverage of the Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips post-finale press conferences.
