Spoiler Alert! Do not read on if you don’t want to know who won American Idol tonight.

After months of tryouts, eliminations, semifinals, celebrity mentors, more eliminations, Ford commercials and awkward elimination-night medleys, David Cook was named the champ of the seventh season of American Idol.

The stunned AI victor wept openly on stage after hearing the decision live on Wednesday night’s star-studded finale broadcast. “I am at a loss for words right now,” he said before being joined onstage by his mother and brother, to whom he pointed and said, “this is all your fault.”

As Idol host Ryan Seacrest announced, Cook had earned 54% of the 97.5 million votes cast after Tuesday night’s final performance show, which saw the ultimate champ receive mostly negative comments from judge Simon Cowell.

However, in a rare show of humanity before the results were announced, Simon admitted that he had watched the show at home last night and, “it wasn’t quite so clear-cut as we called it.” The ornery Brit then apologized to Cook, saying, “I think I was verging on disrespectful.”

The finale itself was an odd, and occasionally hilarious, mix of the old and the new as veteran performers like Graham Nash, Donna Summer, ZZ Top and Bryan Adams and newcomers One Republic and The Jonas Brothers took the stage to perform with the two Davids and the other 10 finalists.

In one of the evening’s highlights, pop star George Michael made a surprise appearance, bringing judge Paula Abdul to tears during his performance.

Vying for the night’s most hilarious moments was a pre-taped segment featuring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr., as auditioning Pips for music legend Gladys Knight. But probably the happiest moment of the finale was when 44-year-old eliminated auditioner, Renaldo Lapuz gave an encore performance of his original tune — accompanied by the University of Southern California marching band!

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From the looks of disgust on Simon Cowell’s face this season, it might seem like he despises each of the American Idol contestants with equal vigor. Not true! As Blender has learned, Simon despises one contestant less than the others.

Who do you think deserves to win this season? we asked Simon. “Probably David Cook,” he drawled. “I think he’s done more to deserve it over the eleven weeks. He’s taken more risks, he’s done things with certain songs that have been more interesting. If I’m gonna base it on who has done the best performances over the live shows, David Cook deserves to win.”

Of course it’s also true that Simon is coaching Cook this week, which means he’ll sing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” a ballad also recorded by Cowell’s chart-topping X Factor discovery, Leona Lewis. “I love that song! David Cook didn’t even know what it was,” Cowell snorted.

For an obnox — uh, opinionated guy like Simon, nothing is more ruinous to good television than boring contestants. He was clearly not pleased with Jason Castro (”He just gave up — I get frustrated over that”). “There was a classic moment last week,” Cowell continues unhappily. “We had these callers phone in and I forget what the question was — ‘What do you like?’ — and they just sat there. They couldn’t talk. It was literally un-be-liev-able.”

Is it because they’re all working to ingratiate themselves with voters? “Of course! It’s like they’ve studied the show and they don’t want to put a foot wrong. And that’s going to have to change, going forward. I want what I call gobby, talkative people on the show.”

So, next season of Idol: gobby, talkative singers. We won’t say which contestant Simon finds the most boring, but we will mention this: When told that his Blender interviewer bears a resemblance to David Archuleta, Cowell roared, “I would think you have a bit more personality than he does.”

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Paula Abdul says she just got confused on Tuesday’s American Idol when she critiqued two songs by contestant Jason Castro (when he’d only sung one).

In an interview on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show Wednesday, she blamed the gaffe on a change in judging.

For the first time in seven years, she said judges were asked to wait to critique contestants until all five had performed (normally, each contestant gets feedback as soon as they’ve finished their song).

Abdul said she first heard about the change when the show went live.

“I go, ‘We have never had to do this before … Oh my God, what do we do?’” she told Seacrest.

“We were freaking out,” Abdul added. “I said, ‘We’re gonna need paper and a pen to make sure we remember what we saw.’”

So she jotted down some notes.

When it came time to give Castro her feedback, she said, “I started looking at what I’m writing… I was reading the critique of what I was writing for Jason Castro….”

On the same page: Her notes for contestant David Cook, which she thought were for a second song Castro had performed.

“I got lost in my notes, and that is as simple as it was,” she said. “It’s so confusing.

“We were all discombobulated,” she added. “It was just crazy, that’s all.”

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It wasn’t easy for Teri Hatcher to get up on stage and perform Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” on Wednesday night’s Idol Gives Back special.

“Singing on Idol Gives Back … now that was nerve-wracking!” Hatcher told Usmagazine.com after taping her performance Sunday.

Her Desperate Housewives costar James Denton played the guitar.

“She’s brilliant,” he raved to Us. “She did Cabaret on Broadway — people forget that she’s a great singer!”

Hatcher said Denton had a hand in picking the song.

“Jamie texted me and said, ‘I just heard this song, and I think it would be great for you,’” she told Us.

“And not 10 minutes earlier, my daughter and I had heard it on the radio, and she said to me, ‘You’d be really good at this song!’” Hatcher added. “So I told Jamie, ‘It was really weird that my daughter said the same thing, so I guess that’s what we should sing.’”

After her performance, Underwood came out on stage and congratulated her.

Said Hatcher, “She was very sweet. I didn’t put her on the spot or anything!”

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American Idol frontrunner David Cook was rushed to hospital after suffering heart palpitations throughout his performance on the hit show on Tuesday night.

The wannabe singer was treated for high blood pressure before returning to the contestant’s apartments where he is now “doing fine”, according to reports on TMZ.com. Fans feared for the 25-year-old after he failed to join his rival singers in the audience to view a performance by series six winner Jordin Sparks – who sang her new track with R+B hunk Chris Brown.

Cook has become one of the show’s favorites, wowing the audience with his rendition of country legend Dolly Parton’s Little Sparrow before complaining he felt unwell.

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American Idol judge Paula Abdul is struggling to work alongside her fellow panelist Simon Cowell, because she is harboring a secret crush for the music mogul.

The Grammy-winning singer/choreographer admits she subconsciously fancies the British star – dubbed TV’s Mr Nasty – even though she finds his sharp-tongued comments hard to take. The 44-year-old says, “Just when you think we’re all getting on, Simon turns and we get back into our little quarrels. I suppose it’s quite funny to watch, but he’s so infuriating.”

“Maybe ( I fancy Cowell). Subconsciously. In a really weird, Freudian way. We have a good work balance. We’ve all had moments where we’ve walked off because of Simon, but he’s even walked off because of himself.”

WENN

Was there more than just nerves behind 17-year-old DAVID ARCHULETA’s shaky performance on last night’s “American Idol”?

The early favorite was definitely off his game and even forgot several lines during his version of THE BEATLES “We Can Work It Out.” Sources are telling ET the singer may be feeling the pressure from his “stage father” JEFF ARCHULETA, who reportedly yelled at David during a recording session Monday. Sources say dad wasn’t happy with his son’s singing — and even brought him to tears. Reps for “American Idol” had no comment on the alleged incident.

ET