Tonight was my second American Idol finale in a row. Having been there last year made it a lot easier this year, since I knew “the ropes”. It takes about an hour and a half to drive from where I live to the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. We left at about 9:30 a.m. and arrived about 11:00 a.m. The line to pick-up tickets was already around the block. We asked when the tickets would be given out and we were told noon. That meant we would be standing in line for at least an hour. Actually, that’s not too bad of a wait when it comes to TV shows in LA. We had tickets in hand by 12:30. We needed to be in the theater by 4:30 p.m.

We headed for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the outside of the theater. ATT was sponsoring a concert stage with a number of past American Idol contestants. We heard Blake Lewis and Kimberly Colwell perform. There were a lot of ex-Idols hanging out. I was able to get Nikki McKibbon to pose for a picture. She mentioned that most of her time now is spent being a mom. Scott McIntyre was on hand, along with Andrew Garcia. I also saw Kimberly Locke, Didi Benami, Ace Young, Elliot Yamen, Michael Johns and Jason Castro. Please don’t check my spelling!

There really isn’t much to tell you about the show itself that you didn’t see by watching the TV show. The contestants did sound better in person than when I replayed the show at home. The audience, as well as the judges seemed to be leaning toward Lauren Alaina, but who knows? Her final “mom” number sold me and I heard a number of others in the audience feeling the same way.

I did finally get to see Steven Tyler, but only across the room. The judges were fawned over by the make-up crew during each break. At least one person screamed to Steven Tyler during the commercials and he did take the time to look out and acknowledge the audience.

My favorite part of the day/night was after the show. The Idol contestants all came outside to the Fox News affiliate tent to do interviews. It gave the fans a chance to meet them and take some pics. Naima was very nice and really took the time to get to each and every fan. Some of the Idol’s had a hard time getting over to the fans because they were required to do interview after interview. This was especially true for James Durbin, Paul McDonald, Casey Abrams and Pia Toscano. I guess this was because they were the most popular. I never did see Haley Reinhart. I’m not sure if she was doing the interviews or not. Lauren Alaina and Scotty came out for just a minute or two and then they were whisked away. The other Idol contestants said they were tired. Jacob’s personality really shined through while he was talking to the fans. He said his album would be out by the end of the year (or so). James Durbin was sporting a fur tail and a Thor mask. When he came over by us, someone asked about the mask and he said it was because he was “Thor Four”, referring to him being eliminated at the fourth position. Stefano Langone is really nice looking in person and his smile is killer! I was really happy to get right up and next to Paul McDonald. He talked a little about his band the Grand Magnolias. His smile really is amazingly white!

So, that’s it for tonight. I’m exhausted and going to sleep. Can’t wait for tomorrow night’s show. Bloggergal