American Idol Season 7

The seventh season of American Idol, the annual reality show and singing competition, began on January 15, 2008 and concluded on May 21, 2008. Ryan Seacrest continued to host the show with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson returning as judges. David Cook was announced the winner of the competition on May 21, 2008, defeating runner-up David Archuleta by a margin of roughly 12 million votes out of over 97 million, the highest recorded total in the show's history. The split was 56 percent to 44 percent.

This is the first season in which neither the winner nor the runner-up, David Archuleta, were ever in the bottom two or bottom three during any of the previous weeks. It is also the first time the winner did not sing his or her first single during the performance show -- David Cook's "The Time of My Life" was first performed at the end of the finale.


Top 12 finalist:
David Cook
David Archuleta
Syesha Mercado
Jason Castro
Brooke White
Carly Smithson
Kristy Lee Cook
Michael Johns
Ramiele Malubay
Chikezie
Amanda Overmyer
David Hernandez