And the winner is. . .David! Cook that is.

“American Idol” ended its seventh season with the resolution of the long-gestating battle of the Davids. Since this was a two-hour finale, the audience would have to wait a long while for the result. What a long, and old, wait it was.

Somehwere along the way, “American Idol” has turned into the popstar senior tour, trotting out washed-up rocker after washed-out rocker to hawk their latest album or remind us they’re still alive. Tonight’s parade featured Graham Nash, Donna Summer, George Michael (singing the worst song in the history of mankind for what seemed like 2 hours), Bryan Adams, ZZ Top (!) and Seal just to name a few. Mostly, they dueted with the Idols or had the contestants introduce them with a montage of their past hits. Whatever the case, for a show that tries to skew young, they should really try to attract some more relevant acts.

That’s not to say the performances were terrible. Most were pretty good, and all, with the exception of Mr. Michael’s, were at least pleasant. But George Michael, oh George Michael, boy did you ever sing the most boring song ever written. Wow did this song just seem to drag on and on like a bad Morissey record without his unique voice or irony. If it weren’t for the fact that this aired right before the results, it might have been enough to cause every viewer to tune out and wait until 10 minutes until 10.

Michael was nearly outdone by the performance of last year’s Idol, Jordin Sparks. She’s had some vocal trouble recently, but it wasn’t her voice that caused the problem during her performance – she actually sounded good. Her song, however, was an absolute meandering mess. Shouldn’t the American Idol get a better choice of singles? This doesn’t bode well for this season’s champion.

As for the champ, David Cook was certainly a worthy winner. Starting with his reinvention of Lionel Richie’s “Hello” in the weeks leading up to the big stage, he showed he was a rare performer for Idol that would attempt to make songs his own rather than doing good karaoke. He wasn’t the best singer (Carly or Archuleta) he wasn’t the best performer (Syesha) and he wasn’t the most like a star (Michael Johns) but all things considered, he’s a worthy American Idol.

Now that the season is over, expect something of a massive overhaul in 2009. Despite what Seacrest reported as record vote totals, viewership and buzz were both way down this season. It will be exciting to see what the producers dream up for next year.

Until then, Payne out.

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