Cut the crap. You know you’ve got a favorite in the American Idol finale. You may pretend it’s beneath you, but deep down inside, you either think Adam Lambert is the best sparkly vampire ever to warble a Johnny Cash tune, or you think Kris Allen is Jason Mraz‘s dreamier, more Southern soul brother. Hell, even my dad is eagerly calling me on Wednesdays to go over the previous night’s performances, and the only other TV show I know for a fact he watches is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, (or Move That Bus, as he thinks it’s called) because it makes him cry.
Anyway, I’ve gotten sucked into Idol this season, and this happened to coincide with an opportunity to chat with Idol‘s first season runner-up, Justin Guarini. Justin has been busy hosting not one, but two American Idol shows on The TV Guide Channel and an Idol video blog on Fancast.com, so he’s nearly as involved in this season as he was in the original one seven years ago. In addition, he’s in the studio working on his third album and is planning on debuting a new web series (but don’t call it a variety show).
I caught up with him and we chatted about who’s going to get Danny’s votes and whether it’s Kris or Adam who is more popular with the training-bra crowd.
After what seems like forever, we’re actually down to the final two on American Idol. Adam and Kris are going to be battling it out this week. Do you think America made the right choice?
I do think America made the right choice. It’s going to be a really nice contrast between the two of them. You have Adam who is just larger than life, with an amazing voice, and then you have Kris, who is a real talented guy and an amazing musician with an amazing voice, but they’re two very different styles. It’s going to make for one hell of a finale.
I agree; I thought that they were definitely two of the best in the competition. Kris really snuck up on me though; it took me a few weeks to realize how good he really is.
Yeah, Kris snuck up on everyone. Kris has been the dark horse of the season. I think originally everyone thought it was Allison, and then Kris really truly, considering that he did not get very much face time in the initial rounds, came out of nowhere. Nobody expected he would be in the top two. Maybe the top five, but no one expected the top two. He really earned his way into it. What really amazes me and speaks to his talent and how likable he is is that he didn’t get the face time, and he’s married and the girls still voted for him! All things seemed to be against Kris getting to this place, but he overcame it and got himself a ticket to the finale.
You know what I thought was so funny about his fans was on the show last week when they showed them going back to their hometowns. Did you notice how Kris seemed to be huge with the eight and under set?
Yeah, that’s a very interesting point. I think one of the things that propelled Kris to the finale is that he is very popular with that younger, texting voting block. The eight to twenty two year-old voting block, which is a huge Idol faction.
I was surprised about that. I had always thought that Danny and especially Adam skewed more toward the teenagers, while Kris had more of the college-aged and above fans.
Yeah, I think it’s the exact opposite and that Adam and Danny both skew older, and there were split votes there. Kris takes a bit of the older crowd, but he has a huge, youthful fanbase. My question is, who’s going to get Danny’s votes in the finale?
If what you said is correct and the people who liked both Adam and Danny go for Adam in the finale, then Kris could definitely have a problem.
Well you’ve got those people who are going to be like, “I’m going to vote for Kris because Adam beat out Danny,” and then you have those other people who voted for Danny who are like, “Ooh, I love Adam too. I’m going to vote for him,” and then you have the younger crowd who’s gonna be split right down the middle. There are so many different factions of Danny votes, and there are so many ways you can slice up the pie, that it’s going to be very close. I think it will be the closest, if not the second closest finale we’ve seen, with the closest of course, being Clay and Reuben.
I find that really interesting, because Adam, from the very beginning, or at least since we’ve been in the Top Twelve, has just been the presumptive winner. He has just been barreling forward without hesitation, and Kris has really just snuck in there. I think a week ago, Adam winning was all but decided, but I think you’re right. I think now it’s going to be a lot closer.
It’s going to be very, very close. So we’ll just see how it all turns out. […] I think they both deserve that crown, and like the rest of America, I’ll be anxiously watching to see who gets it.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on May 19, 2009 @ 13:01 EST5EDT
