I really thought I was prepared for this. And though I am sadly not surprised, I was not prepared. As much as I like Kris, and wish him well, I don't think that the best singer throughout the competition prevailed.

Seriously? Was Kris better than Adam? No chance. None whatsoever.

America - what are you so afraid of?

I'm not afraid of anything (except heights, snakes and spiders). I liked Kris better (yes, there is a chance.) I did not like Adam less just because he was gay and I'm frankly insulted by all these comments of the sort. It's ticking me off.

I haven't read the boards where people are saying they were voting against Adam. I've only seen support for Adam because the people were crazy about him or support for Kris because they loved his style. Not a matter of being afraid of Adam winning.

Adam won a lot by going on the show. Huge exposure. Huge. And tremendous media coverage.

Those who think Adam's coming in second means he is out of the clutches of 19 E, Sony, and Simon, think again. 19 gets first chance to sign and/or manage. If 19 doesn't give him a recording contract Sony will and 19 will manage him. Simon gets a cut of anything the AIers record with Sony.

They have Adam in their clutches and they won't be letting go.

They made an example of Taylor and no one has gone the Taylor route in season 6 or 7 unless 19 and Sony didn't want them.

Taylor was the winner. That is why he got the deal from the company that he got, and had the problems with the company that he did. Other non-winners, like Chris Daughtry, have done JUST FINE. Adam will do just fine. Taylor is like the first winner on Project Runway, a pissant stirring up a good pot for no good reason, and forgoing his prize in the wake of it, rather than just seeing where the wave took him.

Those who think Adam's coming in second means he is out of the clutches of 19 E, Sony, and Simon, think again. 19 gets first chance to sign and/or manage. If 19 doesn't give him a recording contract Sony will and 19 will manage him. Simon gets a cut of anything the AIers record with Sony.

They have Adam in their clutches and they won't be letting go.

That may be true, but Adam now doesn't have to worry about the pressures of *being* the American Idol, nor does he have to worry about the pressures of selling records *as* the American Idol.

Also, you would have to figure that since he wasn't the winner, they may not have the leash as tight on him, such as pidgeonholing him into one genre. Granted, he's a very good Rocker, but he can do more.

Kris might be getting shoehorned into country, which already has Kelly and Carrie........ at the bare minimum.

>>America - what are you so afraid of? <<

That is the issue we have to deal with. For heaven's sake, are you kidding me? The most obviously talented kid just lost. Blatantly. Unless you prescribe to a Wonderfalls kind of world, there's nothing in the universe that could suggest a better winner than Adam. What is wrong with the people of America?

No schock. I looked at DH right before and said "Kris is gonna get it".

As much as I did not want it, it happened.

But Adam truly looked pleased for Kris. Another testiment to him being very down to earth.

LAST EDITED ON 05-20-09 AT 09:35 PM (EST)

NO, NO, NOOOOOOO!!!!! I'm so disappointed!!!

I missed you guys this season but I was here in spirit!! Overall a very good season even if Adam didn't win.

-Mags

Oh I am so happy Kris won!

I didn't think it could happen! Kris is so shocked (as are a lot of you, I see). I'm not shocked at all. I knew it was going to be a toss up between the two of them.

My kids are ticked. LOL

I am soooooooo happy for Kris. At the very end, when he was hugging his wife, how cute was that?

Obviously Adam is happy for Kris. Some of what I just read here has really pissed me off. I wasn't expecting these idiotic comments coming from people on this board. What a shame. I knew some dumb stuff was coming but I guess I hoped it wouldn't. Can't it be that Kris has a broader appeal? Can't it be that lots of people thought Kris deserved to win this? Does it have to be because Adam is gay? Can't it be because Adam is love him or hate him... and A LOT of people hate him? Can't it be that he's not everybody's cuppa? Are you freaking kidding me with all of this?

In case you are peeved at me I never meant to imply it was the only reason.

Kris is inoffensive which gives him an advantage when you have someone that actually causes people to have a big reaction to him. I can't help that some of that reaction has to do with the cultural wars going on right now or that some of the worst offenders in keeping this country as divided as possible latched onto a particular competition as a way to prove that they have the upper hand.

I have always felt Adam was a love him or leave him kind of guy and NO ONE is saying anything about Glow, specifically, when they discuss trends they see in the culture as a whole.

Maybe you are lucky to live in an area where no one ever thinks anything bad about anyone because of some label they can paste on them and refuse to look beyond the label. I've never lived in a place like that. I've always had to keep my unconditional respect and love for everyone stuff under my hat for fear I'll be hurt if people really knew that was how I felt.

I have heard some of the most homophobic comments from people I think are moderate or even fairly progressive compared to some.

I am sorry you are taking everything personally. I do not intend any comment I make about some segments of society to apply to any specific individual on this board unless they actually come out and state that.

I do find it kinda funny how much VFTW's founder is being called homophobic because they picked Kris. Given he's openly gay and talks about his boyfriend all the time.

I do understand how people aren't hearing all the other comments I make about why I was sure days ago Kris would win. I'm not going to overlook the bigotry I have to live with in my backyard every single day just because it might make someone feel bad.

So tempted to ask to have this thread locked.

"In case you are peeved at me"

never.

And I'm not taking anything personally. I just get annoyed with all the "he won because dot dot dot" comments. But my comment was not directed at you at all. I shouldn't have assumed that you would know that. (It was a general reply to the whole conversation that took place underneath your post.)

The sun begins to set, there remains a few beams. MC can see her neighbor’s cat slumber in the day’s end.

MC sees Adam leaving her – his footsteps on the wooden stair, a ray of sunshine on the front swing, creaking in the breeze, boot heels kicking up the dust as he walks away under a cloudy sky

MC then sees her dishwasher floating in the parlour. She walks through to the front of the shoppe – what is that out there? A Lemonade stand out in front of the Shoppe?? Who is that little kid selling it?

MC wanders through her Shoppe – stopping in the powder room. What the heck are those balloons filling her tub? What the hell?

She smashes knuckles on the rails of her brass headboard, smashing them so hard she wakes up. #####! All a dream. It could not be all a dream!!

She grabs her shawl and runs outside.

As she looks down the road, sunlight shines on the silver chains hanging off his hip as he sashays down the road. His arm flies up as he gives a flick of his wrist in a casual goodbye.

*blink blink* Was it a dream? Or just wishful thinking?

MC retreats back into the Shoppe. She kicks off her shoes and curls up on the sofa in the parlour. Alone. But happy.

As much as I took the Mickey on these, I (we) all enjoyed the antics at the Antique. Bravo.

*Smooch*

*smooch*

it doesn't matter who sings it, it's total dreck.

... a really bad car commercial.

Actually, Kris sang it way, way better tonight. I can see now why it fits him much better than it does Adam.

The actually scheduled the right amount of overrun and ended at 10:07 EDT.

I think that's the only shock, considering most thought Kris would pick up Danny's votes.

My only complaint about tonight's show was that they didn't have Kris singing with Mraz.

Great show, great season and great hosting Snidge!

You are our American Idol!

Yup, yup, the hostess with the mostest, and a quick hand on the keyboard too! Thanks, Snidge.

*smooches all around*

A toast to Snidget! You rock!!!

I think the biggest shock for me was that it looked like Adam was getting the Winner's Spotlight Profiling and didn't win.

1. He got to sing with KISS!

2. He got to sing with Kris and Queen!

3. Not counting all the other musical stars he sang with tonight.......

4. He's not shackled to the Idol Winner's Chain!!!!!!

he could actually be way better off not winning.

Mad World

Adam will probably be the most successful non-winner, if he finds the right band. His world wide appeal should carry him past Clay and Daughtry. I just hope that Kris doesn't end up like Taylor and Rueben. He may not be the most talented vocalist, but he's an incredibly likable guy, and has some potential in the right niche. He doesn't deserve obscurity and criticism for winning.

IMO, if this competition was based on raw talent and an amazing range, Adam should have won. But it's a popularity contest, and he came in second. I was disappointed but not surprised.

However, I do agree with the above -- esp. #4. I don't think Adam would do as well with handlers trying to fit him into some formula or another.

Kris is a very nice young man and he has a pleasant voice, very easy listening. He's also "aw shucks" cute as a button, so he'll do well with the AI backing and promotional push.

But I look forward to seeing much, much more of Adam Lambert - he's going to be a superstar. I hope he knows that he didn't need to win this thing ... it's just a part of the long road he's going to travel in his career.

Of Kris' voter base: what percentage is there because they prefer him as an artist -- and what percentage cast for him because they were terrified of having Adam win?

Never underestimate the power of the bigot vote.

At least every vote for Kris from Gokey's voting bloc was anti-Adam........

I am so sad that I agree with this post. Remind me what year this is?

Estee -

I love ya...

but i really hope you don't mean what you just said.

Good night.

geekboy

"I think what Randy Travis was trying to say was 'What the hell was that?!'" - S. Cowell

We don't see much of it here, but I have seen enough "we can't let the gay win" carp on other parts of the interwebs that I have to think that some of the vote was a bigot vote.

I do think that Kris was likely to pick up more fans as the year went on and other fans needed to find a new favorite. I do believe a lot of people who can't stand Adam really don't care about the pictures or the guyliner or theatrical as code for queer (the gay is OK as long as they don't act all flamboyant or anything and straight flamboyant people should just stop it even if they sleep with the right gender). However I can't discount the percentage of America that really doesn't want openly gay, especially openly flamboyant people anywhere near their kids.

That depends on what you think I said.

If you believe I said 'Every single person who voted for Kris only did so because they're bigots', then you're wrong: that is not what I said and it's hardly what I meant -- so if you want to read it that way, maybe you'd better start putting some thought in as to why.

If, however, you believe I said 'A given percentage of Kris' voter base only cast for him because their bigotry led them to fear Adam, and they were going to vote for anyone else in order to keep a possibly-gay male from becoming America's idol in any sense of the term', congratulations on your accuracy.

And if you think that percentage made up the winning difference last night -- then tell me what you believe that percentage to be.

But I think the same thing would have happened had it been Danny/Kris in the Finals, I think most of Adams votes would have gone to Kris because Adam fans(for the most part) don't like Danny. Kris was the only contestant left that people didn't have strong feelings about. I'm not going to pretend that the church crowd that Danny attracted would have welcomed Adam with open arms, but that distaste was a two way street.

I think most that voted for Gokey were not bigots probably some but probably some of everybody's voting base are bigots.

I think that if you liked Gokey's style of singing you would most likely like Kris' style over Adam's.

I do think that Adam was more talented as a singer but a lot of that comes from 15+ years in theatre.

Kris was not nearly as polished as Adam but he was very likeable and was talented as a musician and as an arranger of his music.

If we're defining base as the people who supported an artist all season. And we certainly should be defining someone's base as just that group. If we're talking in terms of who voted for him this week, I'd say significantly larger than none, but I'd add that those votes alone didn't cause Kris to win. Or, rather, that if you tossed out all those votes, Kris still wins the competition. It was clear after last week that Kris was the vote leader and probably had been for awhile, and you'd have to argue that Kris' votes last week had very few people who were voting for him because they didn't want to see Adam win based on perceptions of who Adam is.

I'd say Adam suffered as much from being the clear show/judges favorite and the over-pimping he got as the season progressed as anything else non-performance related. And on a performance basis, while his highs were arguably higher than Kris' (though I'd say they weren't that much higher), his lows were far, far, FAR, lower than Kris'. Adam's performances ranged from absolute genius to absolute drek. Kris' ranged from near-genius to average.

Agree. Overpimping is the key here. I think America is tired of the arrogance the show displays and spoke loudly.

If the vote had been close, Ryan would have touted that. Instead, we got the nearly 100 million number a few times.

Kris was so under the radar that we on this board barely knew him when we did our PTTE's. We thought he was cannon fodder right behind Jasmine and Jorge. I think the highest anyone had him was midpack.

Look at how much they pimped and repimped Matt, for Pete's sake. It's a shame they didn't make it a more level playing field and let the fan base for Adam grow more organically instead of seeding it so much with all their pimpage tricks. They may even be the reason Adam didn't win!

In their drive to attract viewers and make the show a big spectacle that gets buzz, they lost touch. These last 2 weeks have been a lesson for Simon and the producers.

You make a good point about the closeness of the vote. The vote was probably not extremely close or they would have pointed that out like they have in the past. Kris probably won by 2-5 million votes compared to only a million last week.

Even in the earlier rounds, Kris didn't really stand out, yet he got footage much of the way through. There's a certain amount of subjective selectivity that goes all the way back to who makes it through the audition line. And who made it through with a lot of lens time? The bikini girl? Good ol' Norman? Tatiana into the wildcards? Good grief. At least Norman provided some comedic (and I might add, rather entertaining) relief to a lot of this nonsense.

Were we watching the same show? Kris had less than one minute of airtime before singing in the semifinals.

Even after he started performing in the top 13, many times the judges would distract from him by doing their bickering thing after giving him comments. Notice that they rarely did the bickering/childish antics when commenting to Adam.

Glow said there would be this type of discussion.

Just weighing in that there are many fans who like Kris for Kris and it has nothing to do with Adam. I enjoyed both, would have been ok with either winning. Adam was wonderful tonight on the finale.

And what I've seen on the web is a lot of Kradam stuff...not the bigoted stuff that you all say you are seeing. Big Kradam fans out there, spinning MC types of fantasies.

I just didn't realize it would be here. I'm already sick of it.

*goes to hockey message boards*

HEY!!!

I voted for Kris and it had nothing to do with any sort of negative feelings for Adam (of which I have none... I just like Kris better)! Plus, last week, weren't there only 1 million votes that separated the two? Don't get me wrong, I love me some Adam, but I can only hope America voted for the right reason.

I voted for Kris because I liked him the most. I am not a bigot. In fact, one of the things I loved most about Adam was his flamboyance and that he didn't care what people thought of him. Way to undermine someone just because they're not gay. That's the only reason he won! Whatever.

I don't think that anybody said that you are a bigot --- or that all Kris fans and voters are bigots ... but don't you think that it is possible that some people voted for Kris simply to keep the probably-queer guy from winning? My local news ran a story last night about the voting for the final two being a culture war. Like Snidget, I have seen other parts of the internets that have actively rallied the bigot vote: voting against Adam rather than voting for Kris.

We can agree to disagree about who should have won or who is the better artist, but I think that you are misreading the commentary if you choose to believe that people are saying that every. single. person who voted for Kris did so due to bigotry. No one has made that claim.

No, being straight was not the only reason that Kris won ... but it seems to have been a contributing factor (a factor, not the only factor).

It seems similar to the most recent presidential election. Did some voters select McCain in an attempt to keep a black man out of the White House? Certainly. Did all McCain voters feel that way? Certainly not. That would be a ridiculous suggestion.