American Idol (season 7) 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, which was at that time the highest recorded vote total ever recorded in the show's history. The split was 56% to 44%. The seventh
Asian Idol Idol" performance show. The Idols performed two songs each—one in English and another in their native language. In addition to the coverage of "Asian Idol", RCTI ran a series of features called "Asian Idol Extra" between late November to mid-December 2007. Every competing country sent a judge to serve as the contestants' critics, but comments from only three judges on each performer were shown due to time constraints. Special guests in the Results Show included "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks, "Australian Idol" winner Guy Sebastian, "Indian Idol" judge Alisha Chinai, and "Vietnam Idol" judge Siu Black. It also featured performances