Here he is, Mr. American Idol: Ruben Studdard.
The throaty, 24-year-old Alabaman, seemingly as big as the 205 area code he represents, was crowned winner Wednesday night in the second season finale of American Idol, ending the Fox show's five-month search for a pop-singing superstar.
Because this is American Idol and not the Miss America Pageant, Studdard wasn't literally crowned. Nor was he asked to wear a sash.
Thank God.
Instead, Studdard received something much more useful: a $1 million recording contract with RCA's J Records, label home to Kelly Clarkson, the inaugural Idol, and Justin Guarini, the first season's runner-up.
Speaking of runners-up...
Clay Aiken didn't win Wednesday night. But did he really lose?
To be sure, the de-geeked, 24-year-old North Carolinian, whose crystal-clear voice once made guest judge Neil Sedaka cry (in a good way), didn't lose by much--a slim, Bush-vs.-Gore-esque, 130,000-vote margin out of 24 million cast. (Seacrest initially said on air that the difference was 13,500 votes, then 1,350, but later Fox confirmed 130,000 as the actual figure.)
Studdard claimed 50.28 percent of all ballots cast; Aiken, 49.72 percent. Electoral College results are pending. Record deals were final. Studdard, of course, got one; and, in a twist, Aiken got one, too.
Like Studdard, Aiken will enunciate for RCA, it was announced. The plan is for both albums to be released simultaneously in September, staging yet another Ruben-vs.-Clay contest.
"It's been a great season," nonjudgmental judge Paula Abdul said on the telecast. "It's time for them to get on with their careers."
If TV ratings are any indication, both Studdard and Aiken are poised to break bigger than any first-season Idol contestant, including Clarkson and "losers" Guarini and Tamyra Gray, late of Fox's Boston Public.
Wednesday's coronation was watched by nearly 34 million viewers, Fox said, with almost 40 million tuning in for the final results (that's about 600,000 more than watched this year's Oscars). Tuesday's penultimate show, the decisive sing-off between the mismatched pair, was watched by an estimated 27 million armchair judges, per Nielsen Media Research. Last season, the show topped out with about 23 million viewers.
According to SBC Communications, more than 260 million phone calls were logged on its lines Tuesday in the hours after Abdul praised Aiken for "cracking the matrix" with his performance of "This Is the Night." According to the Associated Press, that's an 80 percent increase in call volume over a typical weeknight.
Aiken's first single under his RCA deal will be "This Is the Night" backed with his octave-shattering rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water." "Flying Without Wings," the all-new tune that Studdard crooned approximately 1 million times on Wednesday, is due out on the same day, June 10.
Studdard's victory was declared in the final moments of the two-hour finale, held at the 6,000-seat Universal Ampitheater in Universal City, California.
The extravaganza was marked by cameos of former guest judges (including Sedaka, Olivia Newton-John and Gladys Knight, who gets credit for dubbing Studdard the "velvet teddy bear"), a disturbing video segment showing Abdul sucking whipped cream from rival judge Simon Cowell's finger and the State of the Idol address by RCA exec Clive Davis, who revealed he was already recording songs by both Studdard and Aiken.
Also on hand: Clarkson, presented onstage with a platinum album for her debut disc, Thankful.
Other key cross-promotional moments: numerous official commercials for Idol spinoff American Juniors, premiering June 3 on Fox; and numerous unofficial commercials for the 39-date Idol concert tour, in the form of group sing-along numbers, featuring the second season's finalists, save the disqualified Corey Clark and back-at-camp Marine Joshua Gracin.
In other Idol news Wednesday, NBC bowed to the show's power, conceding the May sweeps race for 18-to-49-year-old viewers to Fox.
Even before it aired, NBC bigwig Jeff Zucker predicted the Idol finale, airing the final night of the key ratings month, would give Fox all the young eyeballs needed to claim its second straight sweeps victory in that key demographic.
Host Ryan Seacrest, meanwhile, said he would compete for eyeballs young and old via a new weekday syndicated show. The as-yet-untitled program was billed by Seacrest in a press release as a merging of the "news magazine and variety" formats. We're sure he'll come up with something by the first episode, set for January.
Elsewhere, judge Randy Jackson confirmed he was "chilling, baby. Doing my thing."
(Originally published May 21, 2003 at 7:45 p.m. PT.)