Simon Cowell back peddles on his comments to David Cook. I'm guessing Cook won.

And I'm right.

The winner by 12 million votes is David Cook.

Cook's ad for the game by Activision is pretty funny:

Finally, someone that the kids might actually know. The Jonas Brothers performed to cheers.

David Archuleta sings with One Republic on their song "Apologize."

Last year's winner, Jordin Sparks is back with "One Step at a Time."

Gladys Knight auditions Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

Carrie Underwood, one of the most successful Idol winners, is back with "Last Name."

And not to be outdone, Archuleta also cut a "Guitar Hero" ad. Archuleta is a boxers guy. Judging from Cook's ad, he either wears briefs or goes commando.

It's Nickelback's "Hero." It's better suited for Cook's vocal styling than Archuleta's.

Cook and Archuleta had to plug the "Love Guru." It was kind of funny to see Mike Meyers make fun of Cook's facial hair (he tries to shave him at one point) and Archuleta's age.

Syesha Mercado sang Seal's "Waiting for You" with Seal. The performance falls kind of flat.

97.5 million votes came in. A record for the show by more than 23 million.

56 percent to 44 percent is the way the voting went.

Randy Jackson's jacket looks like Captain Kangeroo's

The top 12 returned for a group sing. The Temptations' "Get Ready" is the song and the kids all look wholesome dressed in white.

And call it for David Cook.

Archuleta fans shouldn't lose hope, though. Many of those same sites had Syesha going home several weeks before her actual departure.

Cook picked "The World I Know" by Collective Soul. It's groovy and easily his best performance of the night. He tears up at the end.

"One of the cool things about you is that you're showing people tonight a lot of different sides of David Cook," Jackson said. "This is the kind of record you could make and get by with."

"It was a beautiful song, but I'm going to be honest with you it was completely and utterly the wrong choice for you on the night," Cowell said.

Cowell thought Cook should have gone with this:

or this:

Archuleta went with reprising "Imagine." The song sounds even better with a string orchestra.

"Dude, you are so good tonight," Jackson said. "You are exactly what this show is about: finding the best singer we can find and the best singer is right there."

"You were stunning tonight," Abdul said.

"We've taken a little bit of stick this year in the competition, but at the end of the day this show is about finding a star," Cowell said. "Tonight, we've witnessed one of the great finals, but here's the difference. In my opinion, David, you came out here to win and what we witnessed was a knock out."

Archuleta's second song is "This Moment."

"You definitely, definitely chose the better song there,. "Much more in keeping with the night," Cowell said. "Round two goes to David Archuleta."

Cook picked "Dream Big." It's a smart choice that highlights both his vocal ability and talent that has taken him to the finales.

"You were singing your face off," Jackson said.

"A song in your heart, a guitar in your hand and we millions sit in awe, mesmerized by you," Paula Abdul said.

"Using the boxing analogy, it was a bit of a lightweight, I thought" Cowell said. "Bearing in mind this is supposed to be like a winning song, it didn't feel like a winning moment for me."

David Archuleta picked Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and actually made an attempt to win the contest with it. His best performance in the past six weeks.

"[That was] one of the best performances of this whole season," Jackson said. "You picked the right time to peak. That was flawless."

"Tonight's performance was arguably the best you've done so far," Cowell said. "Taking everything into account, round one goes to Archuleta."

I'm guessing this sports metaphor is going to go over many "Idol" watcher's heads.

Cook forgoes playing the guitar on U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." It's all gaspy. The arrangement isn't too far off of the original.

"I think it was a great way to start off this duel of 2007," Randy Jackson said, not realizing it's actually 2008. "Very nice song choice. I don't think you did everything you could with it, but I loved the scoop up at the note at the end."

"I thought it was phenomenal," Cowell said.

Prepare to sacrifice all artistic integrity and any street cred if you ever go on "American Idol," kids.

Producers had the Davids enter the theater dressed in robes and boxing gloves to the theme from "Rocky."

The camera panned over the crowd. All the top 12 fallen "Idol" contestants from this season appear to be in attendance. Amanda Overmyer looks a bit bored, but claps politely. Overmyer and Danny Noriega were the highlights for me this season.

Paula Abdul appears to have borrowed Mariah's bedazzler and has outfitted her sun dress with sparkling, fake gemstones. Of course, for as much as she is over-paid, the gems could be real.

Is it me or does Simon Cowell's hair look more "Dagwood Bumstead" today?

Both Davids are singing three songs each.

Again with the boxing analogy. HBO boxing analyst Jim Lampley handicapped the "three ring" event. Ugh.

Archuleta won the coin toss last week and opted to go second. Cook is first up.

Some updates before we start tonight's show:

Fact: The "Idol" results show will be reduced to 30 minutes next season. This probably means the viewer call-in segment is gone.

Rumor: Paula Abdul told "Extra's" Terri Seymour she had "a sneaking suspicion" that tomorrow night's top secret performer is none other than the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Mercado is gone. It's David vs. David.

See y'all next week.

Yeah! More screaming girls.

Cook didn't originally plan on auditioning. He was there to support his brother Andrew (who was not as fortunate).

And Cook also cries over the reaction of his hometown.

Judging from the absence of a screaming fan base, I think Mercado is toast.

There's less screaming in the montage showing her trip home last week. Some crazy fan thrusts her baby into Mercado's arms and snaps a few photos, though.

Like Archuleta in the last clip, Mercado is overwhelmed by the hometown response and also breaks down in tears.

Ok, they just showed the "Celebrate" clip for Mercado. All bets are off as to who is going home (though I suspect it's still going to be Mercado).

My ears are bleeding. Seriously.

And now they're playing the clip they play when they "celebrate" someone home. Which means Archuleta isn't going anywhere (otherwise, they'd have to play the clip twice, no?)

56 million votes cast, but we have to wait until 8:45 or so to get the results.

Meanwhile, former Idol winner Fantasia returns. There was a great shot of Simon Cowell starring in disbelief over her mess of a performance:

Look for a higher resolution version of this clip on "The Soup" this weekend, no doubt.

Oh, the irony. Tonight's group sing (trio?) is "Aint No Stoppin' Us Now" by McFadden & Whitehead.

Well, it's ironic for one of the three. Enjoy your time front and center while you can, Syesha.

How much of an impact did the back stage absence of David Archuleta's father have on the "Idol" finalist?

Discuss.

Producers picked Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

It's pitchy again. Not Cook's best night.

"David Cook wins the night," Cowell said.

Producers picked the up-tempo "Hit Me Up" by Gia Farrell.

It's an insanely difficult song and ger pitch is all over the place.

Despite the fact that producers forced the song on her, Cowell still blames her for the song choice.

"It was better than the second song," Cowell told her. "But it didn't give you the defining moment I would have liked at the end of this show."

Cook goes the alternative rock route with Switchfoot's "Dare You To Move."

He has a few pitch problems during the verse and I'm not sure it shows us anything we haven't seen before.

"It was a little pitchy," Jackson said.

"It was pretty much what I expected," Cowell said. "It wasn't the most melodic of songs."

The producers picked "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg for Archuleta's third song.

It fits his voice and range perfectly.

"You could sing the phone book," Jackson said. "You're in the zone."

Cowell criticized the producers' song choice, but told Archuleta he had "done enough to get in the finals next week."

Archuleta picked "With You" by Chris Brown. The girls in the audience scream throughout it.

"I applaud the fact you're trying something new and young, but I'm not sure that was the right song," Jackson said. Cowell gave the best line of the night (see video)

Syesha Mercado acts her way through Peggy Lee's "Fever." It's sexy, but you expect the judges to call her out for the theatrics. Some of the arrangement is out of her range, too.

"You sang it amazingly well," Jackson said.

"I think you will probably regret that decision tomorrow," Cowell said. "You had the chance to prove you are a contemporary recording artist with your own choice of song. Instead, you did quite a lame cabaret performance."

For Syesha Mercado, Randy Jackson picked Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You."

"I know she's really young, hot, talented and in charge. This is the kind of record she can make and be successful with," Jackson said of his choice.

She looks and sounds confident.

"I thought that would work well on you. You did an amazing job on it," Jackson said.

David Cook has Simon Cowell to blame for "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." The arrangement is a little to high for him. And just when you think he can't go any higher, he does.

"I thought it was actually one of your best performances to date," Cowell said.

Anybody believe Ryan Seacrest when he says this is the closest race in "American Idol" history?

The judges, producers and singers each got to pick one song. The singers will perform all three tonight.

Abdul picked "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel for David Archuleta. It's moody and slow. Archuleta sings half of it with his eyes closed (something he needs to pay attention to and not do).

"Billy Joel thing works well on you. Would have loved to see you at the piano playing it," Randy Jackson said.

"I really felt you were a storyteller tonight," Abdul said.

"It was good, I don't think it was outstanding," Cowell said.

TMZ is first with the song selections of the final three.

David Archuleta will perform "And So It Goes by Billy Joel, "With You" by Chris Brown and "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg.

David Cook will perform Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (!?!?), "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

Syesha Mercado will add her spin to Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You," Gia Farrell's "Hit Me Up" and Peggy Lee's "Fever."

Since it's a mosh of their own selections and songs chosen by the producers and judges, there's just enough curious picks here that tonight should be interesting.

Again, no surprises.

Is it me or does tonight's results show have all of the suspense of watching bass fishing on TV?

Cook joins Archuleta on the couch.

Syesha Mercado and Jason Castro are called out together. Castro looks like he's over it already.

And then we break for a commercial.

Of course, Seacrest has to spread this out the full hour first. Archuleta takes a seat on the couch.

The final four showdown has sometimes offered up a shocker. No one seems to be expecting one tonight.

51 million votes (the highest this season). The top three had one million votes separating each from the other. Ryan Seacrest thinks that's close (pick up a paper, Ryan. Indiana was close. One million votes does not a close race make).

The Davids (Archuleta and Cook) are paired off for the group sing. Ladies and gentlemen: your top two (if I have to speculate).

Thoughts guys?

Archuleta admits to being a virgin (when it comes to singing romantic ballads). He picks "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley. It's surprisingly heartfelt and his fans are going to eat it up.

"Another great performance by you," Jackson said.
"That was one of my favorite performances by you," Abdul said.
"You didn't beat the competition tonight, you crushed the competition," Cowell said.

Best of the night: Archuleta.
Worst: Castro

He picked "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who. he re-imagines the iconic rock song initially as a slow ballad until the "Teenage Wasteland" chorus. The judges thought he bounced back. I'm not so sure. The arrangement just didn't do anything for me.

"It's a song by Bob Marley," Jason Castro says with a roll of his eyes. "Go figure."

His version of "I Shot the Sheriff" had a weird beat in my opinion. I can't imagine this is going to go over well with the voters.

"Man, dude. For me, that was a really karaoke Bob Marley," Jackson said. "There was nothing special about it."
"That was utterly atrocious," Cowell said. "What were you thinking."

Archuleta does "Stand By Me." It's his best performance in four weeks. That isn't saying much, though. He riffs a bit too much for me (bonus points for pandering to his audience with the lyric "Beautiful girls: won't you stand by me?"

"I loved it, dude. That was hot," Jackson said.

"Very good choice of song," Cowell said. "In the grand scheme of things, I'm going to call that the best performance so far."

Let the comparisons to Tina Turner begin as Syesha Mercado tries to fill some very big shoes.

It's a great performance. Mercado has gotten better and better with each passing week. Randy Jackson agrees:

"This is the third week in a row that Syesha has shown she's in the zone," Jackson said. "You're showing the heat late in the competition; exactly when you need it."

"I thought it was a bad, shrieky version," Cowell said.

The theme is songs by performers/bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

David Cook was first with "Hungry Like the Wolf." He promises to "stand the song on its head." He growls through the whole thing. It was kind of a lethargic performance in my opinion.

"It was an ok choice and a solid performance," Randy Jackson said. "It was just ok."
"You're 'Hungry Like the Wolf' left with a great big appetite," Paula Abdul quipped.
"It was a little bit copycat," Simon Cowell said.

Syesha Mercado is next up.

Courtesy of the good folks at TMZ

David Archuleta: "Stand By Me: (Ben E. King) and "Love Me Tender" (Norah Jones' cover of the Elvis Presley hit).
David Cook: "Baba O'Reilly" (The Who) and "Hungry Like the Wolf" (Duran Duran).
Jason Castro: "Mr. Tambourine Man" (Bob Dylan) and "I Shot the Sheriff" (the Eric Clapton cover of the Bob Marley tune; we're guessing because everyone is expecting him to do the Marley version).
Syesha Mercado: "Proud Mary" (Tina Turner) and "A Change is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke).

First impressions: What is Archuleta thinking? His selection has "treacle." Cook: Perhaps the night's weirdest pairing (ok, they're both British bands; maybe not so strange). Castro: Not exactly thinking outside the box here. Mercado: Not sure if her second choice is well-known enough.

Thoughts guys?