The TV Zone

Excuse me while...please pass the salt...I eat crow...for breakfast.

Thanks. Mmm. Ewww. Not good. Too tough.

But then, what the hell, I'm used to this. It's my morning after tradition - the morning after "American Idol" ends for another year, and the morning after I've picked another wrong winner. At least I was half right this year. I knew a David was going to win.

Yeah, this has gotten to be a grim tradition. I think my picks over the years have included - Justin Guarini, Josh Gracin, Diana DeGarmo, Bo Bice, Kat McPhee, Melinda Doolittle, and now, David Archuleta. Where oh where are they now? On the pile heap of popular culture - the once and formerly famous. The coulda beens. The maybe shoulda beens. The coulda-if-enough-people-woulda voted for 'em beens.

I look on the bright side during these morning-after breakfasts: I coulda picked EJday, or John Stevens, or Sanjaya. Not enough crow in the world to make up for those picks.

What happened last night? Why no Archie?

There was a method to my Archie madness. I figured on a few things happening, each of which may or may not have happened, but clearly didn't happen ENOUGH. One, momentum. That precious commodity in "Idolland" that says when you're on a roll, you stay on a roll. Archie peaked at the right time - the final night of the entire season.

Of course, upon further reflection...I also realized that Archie peaked weeks ago, at the outset of the Hollywood Rounds, and never went much beyond that. He was always good - consistently good. He just didn't get a whole lot better.

Two, the youth vote. I figured that all those teenyboppers and tweenyboppers and beenyboppers would be sending in their text votes, therefore rendering that busy-signal calculus (that had David Cook ahead for weeks) essentially meaningless. There are no busy signals when you send in a text vote, so how could one then tell whether busy signal duration was even a factor?

Of course, upon further reflection...you realize that busy signals ARE an important factor. They DO show which way the wind is blowing. They DO indicate trends and favorites. For all I know, text votes are a negligible factor in an "Idol" victory.

Three, you could buy all that stuff that "Idol" didn't want Archie to win because of Daddy Dearest, or simply because it figured DC was in the sweet spot for record sales, while Archie still wasn't quite there...or whatever.

Of course, upon further reflection...Maybe DC was simply better. The more interesting of the two. The guy who took risks. The guy who chose and performed interesting music by interesting artists, like Chris Cornell. The guy who had a more fundamental understanding of popular music, while Archie's choices too often reflected Daddy Dearest's.

I don't know. I'm through with theories, and further reflections, until (of course) I think up some other ones....

Back to the bird.

(Personal guarantee: No crow was injured during the production of this blog post.)