What's Next for Sanjaya

Sanjaya Malakar is appreciative of his Fanjayas and all—he just doesn't want them getting too close.

With his run on American Idol finally at an end, the ousted contestant said Thursday that one of his top priorities was hiring a bodyguard to shield him from overly eager admirers.

"I'm definitely ready to hire a bodyguard. I'm looking into that right now," the 17-year-old Seattle native told reporters during a conference call.

Despite his questionable vocal skills, Malakar became the indisputable star of Idol's sixth season, reaching a level of fame he said he never anticipated.

"It's crazy," the soft-spoken teen said. "I had no idea how big [the show] really was and how important it was."

From his ever-changing hairdos to his often cringe-worthy performances, Malakar became the one to watch every week, whether or not you were part of the "Sanjaya Universe."

Despite enduring harsh criticism from Simon Cowell just about every week, Malakar said he had no hard feelings for the judge.

"I'm gonna kind of miss him telling me I'm horrible," the teen said with his characteristic good humor Thursday morning during a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest.

During the conference call later in the day, he expanded on his admiration for Cowell.

"He's an amazing person, and what he does is awesome," Malakar said. "He's very opinionated, but I learned more from him than anyone else when I was on the show."

In an appearance on The Oprah  Winfrey Show Thursday, Cowell returned the compliment...in his own way.

"I miss him, probably in the same way as I would miss now my favorite horror movie," he said. "I don't mean that nastily, because I like horror movies. But there's a kind of like, 'I hate it, I love it.' And that's how I felt about Sanjaya."

Malakar's fan base was similarly conflicted, divided as it was between those who genuinely adored him and those who wanted him to win because he was so clearly unworthy of the Idol title.

The teen attributed his staying power on the show to the voting efforts of his true fans, as opposed to the support he received from anti-Idol backers such as Howard Stern and votefortheworst.com.

"I don't think Vote for the Worst or Howard Stern had enough people voting for enough times," he said, "The reason I'm here is solely from the support of my fans."

As for what's next on his agenda, Malakar said he has no plans to go back to high school, having earned his GED.

He said he was open to the idea of trying his hand at "acting, modeling, possibly Broadway. I want to get the full entertainment career."

But Malakar's not giving up on a future in music just yet.

"I'd love to get into Berklee School of Music," he told Entertainment Weekly. "That would be my dream. I want to continue my education and my career."

Obtaining that goal could be tougher than he thinks. In an interview with the Boston Herald last month, Jan Shapiro, the chairwoman of Berklee's Vocal Department, opined that Malakar was "real cute, but not much of a singer."

In the meantime, Malakar has a media blitz ahead of him. After appearing on The Tonight Show Thursday, he's scheduled to show up on Live with Regis and Kelly, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, where he'll present the Top 10 list on Monday.

Malakar has also been invited to the White House Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday as the guest of People magazine, where he'll hob knob with fellow attendees including Sheryl Crow, Jane Fonda, Henry Kissinger and, oh yeah, President Bush.

After fulfilling his various publicity obligations, he plans to head home to Washington state for some downtime before returning to Los Angeles for the Idol finale next month. After that, he'll head out on tour with the other top 10 contestants.

"I feel like I've grown. I'm more confident because I've had this experience," he said Thursday.

"I'm ready to go out there and do it some more."