Katharine McPhee will appear on CBS’ “Home for the Holidays,” scheduled for December 22 at 7 p.m. This special mixes strong music with moving, true-life stories about adoption.

Taylor Hicks is scheduled to join Phil and Robin McGraw for TNT’s “Christmas in Washington.” The holiday special will broadcast December 13 at 9 pm. on TNT.

And not to be left out, past winner Ruben Studdard will appear on “Dear Santa”, a special hosted by Kristen Bell. The show features wishes being granted to kids who wrote to Santa. It will air 6 a.m. Saturday, December 16, on ABC Family.

Other former American Idol contestants made appearances, as well. Katharine McPhee and Chris Daughtry made guest appearances as presenters. McPhee and Daughtry presented Rock Album of the Year to Nickelback. You can watch their presentation below.

So, here’s what Taylor Hicks will receive. A management contract with Idol creator Simon Fuller’s 19 Management and a recording contract with a division of the BMG Music Group that’s headed by industry legend Clive Davis. He also received a Ford Mustang convertible, but so did Katharine.

Most likely, Katharine will also receive a recording contract with BMG, so it’s hard to say what the real advantage of winning is– other than bragging rights and extra publicity.

Wed July 5, 2006 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
Thu July 6, 2006 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
Fri July 7, 2005 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Sat July 8, 2006 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Sun July 9, 2006 Hartford, CT Hartford Civic Center
Tues July 11, 2006 Albany, NY Pepsi Arena
Wed July 12, 2006 Hershey, PA GIANT Center
Thur July 13, 2006 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
Fri July 14, 2006 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
Sat July 15, 2006 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum
Sun July 16, 2006 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum
Tues July 18, 2006 Wilkes Barre, PA Wachovia Arena
Wed July 19, 2006 Cleveland, OH Wolstein Center
Fri July 21, 2006 Rochester, NY BlueCross Arena
Sat July 22, 2006 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
Sun July 23, 2006 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
Tues July 25, 2006 Bridgeport, CT Arena at Harbor Yard
Thurs July 27, 2006 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena
Fri July 28, 2006 Washington DC Verizon Center
Sat July 29, 2006 Richmond, VA Richmond Coliseum
Sun July 30, 2006 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
Tues August 1, 2006 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Bobcats Arena
Wed August 2, 2006 Columbia, SC Colonial Center
Thurs August 3, 2006 Duluth, GA Arena at Gwinnett Center
Sat August 5, 2006 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
Sun August 6, 2006 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum
Tues August 8, 2006 Birmingham, AL BJCC Arena
Thurs August 10, 2006 Nashville, TN Gaylord Entertainment Center
Fri August 11, 2006 Columbus, OH Value City Arena
Sat August 12, 2006 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
Sun August 13, 2006 St. Louis, MO Savvis Center
Tues August 15, 2006 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
Wed August 16, 2006 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
Thurs August 17, 2006 Indianapolis, IN Indianapolis State Fairgrounds
Fri August 18, 2006 Louisville, KY Freedom Hall
Sat August 19, 2006 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
Sun August 20, 2006 Peoria, IL Peoria Civic Center
Tues August 22, 2006 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
Fri August 25, 2006 San Diego, CA iPay One Center at the Sports Arena
Sat August 26, 2006 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
Sun August 27, 2006 Anaheim, CA Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim
Tues August 29, 2006 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
Wed August 30, 2006 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion at San Jose
Fri September 1, 2006 Portland, OR Rose Garden
Sat September 2, 2006 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
Tues September 5, 2006 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
Thurs September 7, 2006 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
Fri September 8, 2006 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
Sat September 9, 2006 Houston, TX Reliant Arena
Sun September 10, 2006 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center
Tues September 12, 2006 Duluth, GA The Arena at Gwinnett Center
Thur September 14, 2006 Huntington, WV Big Sandy Superstore Arena
Fri September 15, 2006 Norfolk, VA Constant Convocation Center
Sat September 16, 2006 Reading, PA Sovereign Center
Sun September 17, 2006 Syracuse, NY War Memorial at OnCenter
Tues September 19, 2006 Hershey, PA GIANT Center
Thurs September 21, 2006 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center
Fri September 22, 2006 Providence, RI Dunkin Donuts Center
Sat September 23, 2006 Bridgeport, CT Arena at Harbor Yard
Sun September 24, 2006 Wilkes-Barre, PA Wachovia Center

Birmingham, Alabama was being covered by the O’Donohue twins. It was packed with screaming Taylor fans. Universal City was covered by Tamyra Gray. It was packed, but it was hard to tell if they were Kat fans, American Idol fans, or Taylor fans.

This year they allowed several contestants to sing with their American Idol. Paris Bennett started this off singing “We’re In This Love Together” with Al Jareau. Then Chris Daughtry sang with Live.

Unless I missed it when I was out of the room, I don’t think Kellie Pickler sang a duet last night. She did, however, do a series of silly skits with Chef Wolfgang Puck. Called Puck & Pickler, these segments featured Kellie sampling escargot and fending off a live lobster.

Katharine’s choice of duet partner was odd, in my opinion. She sang “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” with meatloaf. Now, I understand this song was made famous by Celine Dion and Meatloaf, but I just thought that Meatloaf didn’t sound that great and that his voice really clashed with Katharine’s voice. You could also tell that Katharine’s aspirations include acting, as she chose to “act” the whole song. Was I the only one who found this grating and irritating.

Then they did this odd segment (repeated throughout the rest of the show) called the Golden Idols. This consisted of reviewing some of the worst and most bizarre performers of the season– AGAIN. Most of these were just annoying, but a few bear mentioning.

Crazy Dave Hoover made a return, fell off the stage, jumped back on, and then I’m pretty sure had to be dragged off by security, but we didn’t get to see the last part since they went to commercial. Elliott’s Mom won the proudest family moment. They also had the really, really bad guy who sort of looked like Clay Aiken on. They even let him sing. This was really just a setup to get Clay Aiken on the stage singing. Of course, it took me a moment to realize that it WAS Clay– what’s up with the hair, dude? And, finally, in their tribute to male bonding, the cowboys from the L.A. auditions made an appearance singing “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”.

The guys from the final 12 sang a medley of songs, starting with “Taking Care of Business”. Midway through the performance, Taylor came out and played the harmonica with them.

Then, there was the obligatory Ford commercial. This one was a bit special, though, as it lead up to the reveal of Taylor and Katharine’s new Ford convertibles.

Elliott sang U2’s “One” with Mary J Blige. I thought this was a really good performance. Their voices seemed well-suited to one another, and Elliott sounded great.

Carrie Underwood sang her new single, which is a real tear jerker. She looked great and was coming off her wins at the Country Music Awards the night before. I had heard Bo Bice was going to be there for last night’s performance but, again, unless I missed it, I didn’t see him.

I don’t know what was going on with the finalists’ duets last night. As previously mentioned, I thought Meatloaf didn’t sound as good as he usually does. Then Taylor sang “In The Ghetto” with Toni Braxton, and she sounded horrible. She seemed more intent on prancing around the stage in a REALLY short skirt than on singing the song.

Taylor’s duet was followed by the girls singing their medley, which was full of “I am woman, hear me roar” songs, starting with “I Feel Like a Woman”. The girls all sounded really great.

Shortly after the girls’ medley, there was a tribute to Burt Baccarat. This was really good, too, except for Kevin Covais singing “Pussycat, Pussycat”. Eww. The medley was finished off with Dion Warwick singing two songs, including “That’s What Friends Are For”. I was reminded how good Melissa McGhee was and led, once again, to wonder how Kevin Covais managed to reach the final 12. A lot of times when you see people later, you think “Wow, they really ARE good”. Not so with Kevin Covais. He was just nowhere near the league of the other performers. They might as well have let Cowboy Garrett join the final 12.

That was pretty much it, except for the reveal of the winner. But there was one other surprise. In the most random move of the evening, Prince sang a couple of songs. Um, what? Okay, it clearly wasn’t for ratings because a) they don’t need the help and b) no one knew ahead of time. It wasn’t in relation to anyone else singing (which leads me to wonder the rumors about them trying to get him on the show were true– that he didn’t want to interact with the contestants). So, what the heck was Prince doing on the show? I can only assume it was an attempt to lure “cooler” acts for the future. Now, they can say to more modern performers, “You should do American Idol. Even PRINCE has been on American Idol.” I don’t know. It just seemed odd to me.

Then they revealed that Taylor was the winner, he sang his single, and there was confetti and hugging all around.

In all, I think it was a really good season. We’ll be covering Idol goings-on between now and next year when we start the process all over again. So, stay tuned.

Taylor’s song was better. What I really liked about this is exactly what Randy really liked. Any song Taylor sings sounds like a “Taylor Hicks” song. Do I think it’s the best song ever written? No. I haven’t heard any American Idol finale song that I wanted to run out and buy the single. I thought it was a really good performance, though.

The show closed out with Daniel Powter playing “Bad Day” while a montage of scenes from the entire season played on the big screen. So, the question is who will be having a bad day tomorrow?

Off to vote. Happy dialing!

And then I got my wish. Taylor sang “Levon”. Woohoo! Maybe the judges were right. Maybe it wasn’t as good as the first time. I just think that they were really surprised the first time about how good he was, and now they’ve raised their standard of what they expect from him. I still thought it was good.

If you liked Katharine’s version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, then I can understand how you’d think that she won that round. But I think it’s Taylor all the way. But you knew that, didn’t you?

Coming up next– the original song.

Taylor sang “Living for the City”, which the judges loved. It’s not my favorite song that he sings. I was hoping for “Levon”. But he’s still SO entertaining.

So, in spite of the fact that I prefer Katharine’s song, I have to give round one to Taylor.

Coming up next, one of my LEAST favorite performances of Katharines “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. Maybe I’ll like it better this time.

So, the following is my response:

While I agree with you that Katharine McPhee is pretty boring, I disagree with your assessment of Taylor Hicks and Chris Daughtry. Personally? I thought Chris Daughtry was a HUGE snore. I would never have wanted to buy an album of his and listen to the same song screamed at me over and over. If he was so wonderful, why was he turned down for Rock Star:INXS? I’ll tell you why– they could recognize a one-trick pony and so can the American public. Will Chris obtain commercial success? Probably. But then so have plenty of other “singers” who make a career out of screaming.

So, having agreed with you about Katharine and disagreed about Chris, let me talk briefly about Taylor. I can understand the irritation with his performance style. I love Taylor, but even I get nervous about his performances sometimes. But you left out a few facts about Mr. Hicks. Taylor has been performing longer than most of the other competitors. He’s already recorded albums. In short, he’s a true musician. If you haven’t listened to any of his cds, I suggest you take a listen at http://www.taylorhicksfansite.com/media.htm. The extended version of Georgia On My Mind is particularly wonderful.

So, give Taylor a break. He’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but he sure is mine.

Both Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee will be singing three songs. Two of their choices will be songs they previously sang in the competition.

So, what songs do you think that Taylor and Katharine should sing?

Reality TV did a pretty interesting breakdown of what Taylor should sing. In a separate article they did a similar breakdown for Katharine McPhee.

There’s no news yet on what the third song will be, but I’ll be sure to keep you informed of anything I hear. Look for my recommendations for the finalists coming soon.

What was your favorite performance tonight?
Elliott- “Open Arms”: 7% (19)
Katharine- “I Believe I Can Fly”: 3% (7)
Taylor- “Dancing In The Dark”: 7% (18)
Elliott- “What You Won’t Do For Love”: 7% (20)
Katharine- “Over The Rainbow”: 38% (101)
Taylor- “You Are So Beautiful”: 21% (56)
Elliott- “I Believe To My Soul”: 4% (10)
Katharine- “I Ain’t Got Nothing But The Blues”: 1% (4)
Taylor- “Try A Little Tenderness”: 13% (34)
Total Votes : 269