So in the course of human events, if you have to choose between Top Chef and the American Idol season finale…choose Idol.  Here’s why.

Last night, we had three shows taping on the DVR…one was the American Idol season finale (2 hours long from 7pm-9pm), the Boston Legal season finale (one hour long, 9pm-10pm) and the new episode of Top Chef (one hour long, also from 9pm-10pm).  Because of certain circumstances, we didn’t start watching Idol until around 7:35pm.  We figured we should be able to catch up with it before the show is actually over.

We didn’t.

We were still on DVR playback when Ryan had the envelope in his hand, saying the words “And the American Idol for 2008 is…” and I kid you not…the show stops!  It’s around 9:02pm at this time, so I know we’re only a few minutes behind live TV, but here’s the catch…we had two shows recording and couldn’t watch live TV without canceling one of the shows being recorded.  We were so stunned…well, we thought about stopping Top Chef, but we weren’t sure if they’d be re-airing that episode anytime soon…and we knew we couldn’t watch Boston Legal online (we tried about a month ago and for some reason, that show’s the only one ABC has that isn’t online right now).

So we were stymied…we just couldn’t believe it.  So we wait about 10 minutes and get online and what do you know, right there front and center on MSNBC.com is an article about who the winner is and we click that to find out that David Cook has pulled the upset (and by a WIDE margin) and won American Idol 2008!!

First off, some thoughts on the show…I thought most of the musical acts were outstanding.  It was good to see the duets featuring the Idol contestants playing with those music legends (I particularly enjoyed Graham Nash playing with Brooke White and George Michael with the Top 12).  I thought that all the contestants were in fine voice as well.  Could Amanda Overmyer look anymore disinterested?!?  How is she going to be on that tour this summer??

So onto the results…obviously I’m surprised.  The general consensus was that David Archuleta had the teeny-bopper vote, and that was enough to get him through as Champion.  Most media outlets were giving the title to Archuleta hands down…even Simon was giving it to him.  I guess it goes to show you that with four hours to vote and only two candidates to choose from, it really was anybody’s game.  I’m not entirely sure that David Cook was happy that he won or relieved that this thing was over…probably a little bit of both.

You know what will be interesting…where David Archuleta’s career goes from here.  Here’s why…other than a remarkably humble personality and a great voice, what all have we learned about David Archuleta this year?  Is he really a person and a performer that can be sold to audiences at this point?  I’m not entirely sure.  In the context of American Idol, he’s a great story, but beyond that…I’m just not sure.

To the winner go the spoils, and the $1 million contract.  Will Clive Davis and his record label force David Cook to go against his rocker roots and do a pop album?  I doubt it.  Beyond all other things, they are still about selling records and making money, and David Cook’s money shot is rock and roll music.  So expect his debut to be much like that of Daughtry’s debut, and probably just as successful.

So another season of Idol is at an end.  I have to say I was pretty impressed with how the last two shows turned out.  So what did YOU think, America?!?!?!