Hold the phone! DialIdol.com is calling it for Cook

Amazing!

DialIdol.com, the tracking service that measures busy signals from people who use their special speed-dialing software, is reporting a clear and unambiguous victory for our boy David Cook in "American Idol" final round voting.

DialIdol began predicting "Idol" winners in season 4. For the past two seasons DialIdol has determined a clear vote leader beyond the margin of error — and both times it was dead-on.

Of course, Taylor Hicks and Jordin Sparks seemed like clear winners, and the finale wound up to be an anticlimax. This year's prediction, by contrast, throws a huge monkeywrench into the impressions left by last night's sing-off.

If DialIdol is right, then Cowell was wrong. I was wrong. We were all wrong!

Cook wins!!

EARLIER UPDATES:

• The Star's Tim Finn reports from inside the Nokia Theater.

•The Star's Tim Finn writes that Archuleta was given "ballads to clobber."

• Paul Harris and I discussed the "Idol" finale this morning. See link at the bottom of this story.

I've never been one to disagree too strongly with "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell. His judgment is very sound, and he has the track record to back up his opinions. So, even though I was rooting for the home team, frankly I can't take too much umbrage at Cowell for short-circuiting the overnight voting process. After all, the show was clinging tenaciously to its boxing motif from start to finish, and Cowell is a judge, so if he wants to declare David Archuleta the winner by "knockout," who am I to argue?

Besides, he's right. The kid from Utah has likely won "American Idol" thanks to his performances Tuesday night.

Cowell's snap judgment — which, as we all now know, is actually acquired throughout the day as the judges listen in on the dress rehearsals — may have been harsh toward Cook, but Archuleta absolutely picked better songs than Cook and performed them with great emotion. They may not be better songs to launch a career with, but they certainly were better songs to wow 30 million people watching at home with.

Earlier today, on various radio outlets, I said that Archuleta would have to shamelessly sell himself to America in order to overcome Cook's polished, confident arena-rocker presentation (for instance, here on "The Walt Bodine Show"):

KCUR - Walt Bodine Show 5/20/2008 - excerpt

To my genuine surprise, that's just what Archuleta did. They should've run his father off the set months ago!

PODCAST: Paul Harris and I talked about the "Idol" finale this morning.
Paul Harris - 5/21/2008