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Despite the reminders that it is a fading institution with declining viewership, American Idol continues to attract interest, and in some ways, this season has inspired a renewed volume of comment in mainstream media as it culminates tonight. The New Yorker, NPR, and commercial radio and television news have all been reporting on the showdown of David Archuletta and David Cook, reflecting on the relevance of American Idol, and analyzing its impact on our media culture and its consumers. Noted for its establishment of the judging and elimination model of reality / talent television, Idol has had an unexpected impact of also modeling a critique behavior that mainstream Americans now exhibit in routine conversation about any number of performances.

David Archuletta

David Cook

With its wierd mix of hackneyed music and expectations of pop freshness, American Idol has been most intriguing during the preliminary rounds in which the young singers struggle to either fit into the mold or break out of it. Showstopping-high-note endings are still de rigueur, but the Whitney Houston-esque warblings that dominated in the beginning are less common now. Judge Simon Cowell prefers modern to old fashioned, and will justifiably condemn performances as "cruise ship," "theme park," and "karaoke." And yet the music that is selected is so freighted with anachronism and familiarity that it is difficult for performers to achieve any other effect. The gestalt of the group is often better than any individual performance, and the process of elimination seems to gradually remove any of the idiosyncracies that make performers have lasting resonance.

Mark Harris on NPR this morning pointed out that these two finalists represent the opposite ends of the spectrum -- Archuletta is the bland, consistently perfect pop singer with no real personality of his own, and Cook has sought to establish his own personality and imprint as a rock guy while still working within the Idol pop mold. It has been hard for me to appreciate Archuletta as the season has worn on. His initial fresh, cute optimism seemed to degrade into a stricken, fear-based rigidity, and the polish of his vocals seemed synthetic and boring. The stories about his father being banished from the backstage of the show reinforced my impression that perhaps he was under too much pressure, a little too much control. I appreciated Sasha Frere-Jones comment in the New Yorker that Archuletta had a "creepy inability to become displeased with himself." There is something very sad about David Archuletta. As for David Cook, he started out as a little un-photogenic and has gradually worked his style up to match his other talents as a musician. He really profitted from the "use instruments" innovation this year, and his vocal talents emerged progressively to earn respect as the season went on -- an interest-factor not demonstrated by Archuletta.

So, the show, which should be called "American Money Maker," has capitalized on this by setting up the climactic showdown performances of last night as a "boxing match." I had missed the first 15 minutes, and so didn't realize that they had actually had these poor guys come out in boxing clothes. I think that was probably the moment that David Cooks' personal integrity cracked and he became overwhelmingly depressed. It was bad enough to shill for Ford in faux music videos, which he somehow managed to do with some personality and grace that seemed to be consistent with his actual self, but the boxing robes and gloves were corny beyond Kansas.

Photo by Fox

The judges awarded the evening to Archuletta. Vote for the Worst urged viewers to vote for Archuletta. Dial Idol predicts David Cook will win. It seems like David Cook might be opting for second place as a good bet -- no doubt he will fare better in his life than Archuletta either way. Smart guy, decent musician. I voted for him and against the child star phenomenon.

UPDATE: David Cook wins, by 12 million votes. Was the premature nod to Archuletta a connivance to generate drama and ratings and votes? If so, it worked.