Simon Says Sorry

Did Simon Cowell know David Cook would win? Or was he, for once, just being nice?
Right before host Ryan Seacrest announced Cook as the American Idol winner, Cowell issued an uncharacteristic apology to the sincere 25-year-old rocker for skewering him during Tuesday's final performance show. Cowell went so far as to say that the remarks he made the night before to the future Idol Wineer were "verging on disrectful".

He said to the final two: "When I went back home and watched it, it wasn't quite so clear cut as we called it."
Cowell congratulated and praised both Cook and runner-up David Archuleta, the smiley 17-year-old crooner from Murray, Utah. Cowell even revealed that "for the first time ever, I don't really care who wins". Such comments came as a surprise to many after Cowell heaped huge amounts of praise on Archuleta and said he won the competition by a "knockout".

The 48-year-old acerbic judge was very wrong: Cook overcame Archuleta with 12 million more votes.

While Idol ratings were down all season, the final contest turned that tide, with viewership for Tuesday's show up 3 per cent over last year's performance finale.

That provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5 million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year's total vote count was 74 million.

Source: TodayOnline