The ladies were scheduled to perform Tuesday night, but a trip to the hospital by Crystal Bowersox shuffled things up. Instead, the guys went on last night, and they showed marked improvement from last week.

Congrats to Kris Allen who won Season 8 of American Idol this evening. I just finished watching on DVR, and I’m ready to crash, so a few notes and it’s off to bed for me.

All in all, the two hour finale was a darn good show. Yes, they had several of those stupid group numbers, but they had quite a few good to great performances as well. And the star power of their guest performers was amazing.

With thirty-six million votes, it’s clear that a lot of people care about the outcome of American Idol. That, or a few people care an awful lot.

I realized something while listening to Paula drone on in answer to some question from Ryan. I keep expecting the Academy Award orchestra to start playing to drown her out.

Unfortunately, that never happens.

The American Idol team is keeping the theme for the Top Nine unusually secret. It’s not clear whether this is intentional or not.

According to unconfirmed reports, the theme will be iTunes Downloads. Looking at the list of top downloads for iTunes, I don’t expect to make any suggestions of what the contestants should perform. I’m not sure I’m culturally knowledgeable enough to do so.