THIS...is AMERican Idol!

Sorry, I had to channel my inner Ryan Seacrest for the title of this post.

Many of you may be aware that I am a big American Idol fan. I've watched the show since Season 1, when I cried as Kelly Clarkson sang "A Moment Like This" after being crowned the First American Idol. I swooned over Clay Aiken's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in Season 2. I remember watching Fantasia's "Summertime" in my Gainesville apartment in Season 3. In Season 4, I picked Carrie Underwood to win from the moment I saw her first audition (yay me!). In Season 5, I was a Chris Daughtry fan and was shocked when he was eliminated early. Same story with Melinda DooLittle in Season 6. I liked both Davids in Season 7, but thought David Archuleta should have won. And now, in Season 8, I was an Adam Lambert fan from the beginning. As the season wore on, I began to love Kris Allen as well - to the point that I was happy for him when he won, even though he beat my Adam.

As you can tell, I love American Idol. So you can imagine that when I learned that living in this great city would give me an opportunity to see both of this year's finalists performing live, I was psyched.

This week I was able to see Adam Lambert perform twice, and Kris Allen once (well, he did two songs, so maybe that counts as twice). The first performance I saw was Adam Lambert on the CBS Early Show. I got up at 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday morning to be at the plaza in front of CBS studios by 7:15 a.m. Adam finally started coming out to rehearse shortly after 9:00 a.m., but didn't give his official interview and performance until after 10:00. In the meantime, I stood around in the chilly weather with lots of middle-aged women from New Jersey who were proudly sporting their dark smudged eyeliner, black fingernails, and Adam t-shirts. One of those women could have told me anything I wanted to know about Adam. She spouted off his birthday like it was nothing. Another woman had pulled her kid out of school to see this performance, not because the kid was an Adam fan, but rather because she needed to leave the house at 3:30 a.m. to get there on time and she didn't know what to do with her child at that hour. So he got to miss school and stand around in NYC while his mom screamed over a 27-year-old guy wearing eyeliner. The poor kid seemed less than thrilled, I will say. But maybe he was just tired?

Anyway, the performance was great! I was so close to Adam and his performance of "Mad World" was flawless. I even was on TV, in the crowd!

Me, with Adam behind me!

Adam doing an interview with Maggie Rodriguez

Hi, Adam!

Hey, look! There I am on TV! (Yes, I took a picture of my TV. I'm a dork like that.)

VIDEO: Adam Lambert singing "Mad World" on the CBS Early Show

I was very excited about Tuesday's Adam Encounter, but I knew that on Thursday BOTH finalists - Kris Allen and Adam - would be performing on the Today Show. Eric walks past the Today Show every day on his way to work anyway, so we decided to get up and head out there early together to see if we could catch those performances. Once again, we were out there at 7:15 a.m., which was actually perfect timing. We were far too late to get up close in front of the stage, but right as we were arriving they opened up the barricades and let people in behind the stage. We were able to get a great spot so that we could see everything, albeit from the back. The Today Show was more fun to wait around for than the CBS Early Show, too, because they actually broadcast the show on screens out onto the plaza. So, at least there's entertainment while you wait.

The guys finally started performing around 8:45 or 9:00. Adam did one song ("Mad World" again) and Kris did two ("Heartless" and "No Boundaries"). They were also oh-so-cute because while each of them performed, the other stood off to the side and we could see them enjoying the other's performance. While Kris performed, Adam smiled and danced along. While Adam sang, Kris strummed his guitar and sang along. Awww, they love each other! That was neat to see, and we would not have been able to see it if we had been in front of the stage. And, we were on TV again, during their interview!

People in front of the Today Show windows, waving at the cameras

Yay! Kris and Adam!

Kris and Adam getting ready to do an interview. This picture is funny because you can see Al Roker on the left in the gray suit, taking a picture of them with his cell phone! Funny!

Al Roker then posted this picture on his Twitter! See the person (or rather, tiny speck) in the white shirt all the way on the right? That's Eric!
I'm to the right, out of the picture, taking a picture of Al Roker taking this picture. Did that just blow your mind?

Kris strumming his guitar on the sideline

There we are on TV! We're blurry, but we're there!


VIDEO: Kris Allen singing "Heartless" on the Today Show

I obviously only posted the video I took of Kris's "Heartless" above, but I did take videos of the other two Today Show performances. I just didn't want to overload you with videos in this post. If you want to see Kris's performance of "No Boundaries" (and Adam dancing along), click here. If you want to see Adam's performance of "Mad World" for the Today Show (and Kris singing along, which is really adorable), click here.

So, this was all very fun. I guess this marks the end of my Idol fun for the year, though, until Season 9 next year. I always get a little sad when Idol is over, especially this year when I really liked the top five or so contestants. I almost didn't want anybody to win, I just wanted them to keep coming on my TV and singing to me each week. But I guess this year it was for the best, because my favorites then were free to come to New York and sing to me in person! Hooray!