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
American Idol (season 5) As of May 25, 2006, its predictions for season five were 87% accurate. This was the first season in which the free US public service website, Zabasearch.com, started to openly present voting results (starting with the top 12 and onward) that it claimed were from Cingular and American Idol. It has experienced controversy over the fact that its results changed throughout the day until (and often through) the results show. "American Idol" was the top-rated show for the 2005–06 TV season and occupied the top two positions. The number of viewers for its Tuesday episodes averaged 31.17 million and for