American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, 17, will have close supervision as he hits the road for the summer’s American Idols Live! Tour. His father Jeff, who had his backstage privileges revoked in the final weeks of Idol, will be on the tour bus with his son and the other top five guys (Michael Johns, David Cook, Chikezie and Jason Castro).

“I forgot about that,” David laughed coyly to PEOPLE when fellow Idol Carly Smithson asked Michael Johns if anyone on the guy’s bus snores. “Just your dad,” quipped Johns at the L.A. press day for the Pop Tarts presents American Idol Live! Tour 2008, which kicks off in Brooke White’s hometown of Glendale, Ariz., on July 1.

“We don’t have dancers on the tour so we are utilizing Jeff Archuleta as our break dancer at the end,” Smithson joked. “He came in with his hat all bent and this big T-shirt on and he looked all like street kid!”

But David also explained that his parents will mostly likely switch off when and where they can. “I think they’re going to trade when we go to Utah,” he said. “If she has time, you know it’s all a matter of how things work out, because she has the other four kids to look after, and they all want her.”

There will be two buses on the tour, one for the men and one for the women. “It’ll be quite the experience,” said a slightly apprehensive Archuleta.

Added Smithson, whose husband will be back in San Diego during the 3-month tour, “It’s important to keep your family as normal as possible, especially for [David].” –Jed Dreben

Rocker, David Cook, triumphed over his competitor David Archuleta last night and rightfully claimed the “American Idol” title.

While the judges Tuesday crowned Archuleta the winner of the three singing rounds, the voters decided otherwise and in a huge unexpected way. Ryan Seacrest announced that Cook won by 12 million votes.

Right before the winner was announced, Simon Cowell said that he wanted to apologize to Cook because looking back at the tape, the competition “wasn’t quite so clear cut as we called it.” He felt he was on the verge of being disrespectful when he commented on how stupid it was for David Cook to pick the final song he sang. He also said that both guys deserved to be there and for the first time in American Idol history, he really didn’t care who won.

When Ryan announced Cook’s name, he became overwhelmed with emotion. Bending down and coming back up with tear filled eyes, the second time in many nights that the scruffy-faced rocker broke down.

“This is amazing,” he said. “This is all your fault,” he added, addressing his brother, Andrew. The story goes that Cook was only tagging along with his sibling to the “Idol” auditions to lend support, and wound up getting on the show.

To close out the show, Cook took the mic one last time on the American Idol stage and sang his new single “Time of My Life,” a song written by Nashville singer/songwriter Reggie Hamm, winner of the annual “Idol” songwriting competition.

“If I had to choose between playing a song that not a whole lot of people know that I could get behind, or the opposite, I’ll choose the lesser-known every time,” Cook told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.

While “Idol” ratings were down all season, the final contest turned that tide. The viewership of Tuesday’s show went up 3 percent over last year’s performance finale. The David competition provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5 million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year’s total vote count was 74 million.

*For those David Cook fans, here is David Cook in a Guitar Hero commercial, Risky Business style.

Finishing off the seventh season of Fox’s reality hit, Missouri-native David Cook took home the title Wednesday night after beating out 17-year-old David Archuleta.

“I’m absolutely at a loss for words right now,” Cook said through tears. “This is amazing — thank you!”

Cook then performed ballad, “Time of My Life”

Over 97.5 million finale votes — an Idol record! — were cast to determine the winner. Ryan Seacrest announced that Cook won by 12 million votes.

Cook was fighting an uphill battle: after Tuesday night’s David vs. David three song showdown, Cowell declared Archuleta “a knock out.”

“I feel really good,” Archuleta gushed to joyoncam.com on Tuesday. “Both me and Cook just gave it all we had and even though Simon wasn’t so favoring Cook, he did so well.”

Cook agreed with Cowell that it was Archuleta’s night. “I have to concede it,” he told Usmagazine.com. “The kid came out all three songs and nailed it. But I walk away from this with my head held high.”

The 25-year-old bartender has had a rough season: he was rushed to the hospital in April after suffering from heart palpitations and high blood pressure. He still managed to perform Dolly Parton’s tune “Little Sparrow” on the show.

Later that month, he broke down in tears after performing Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” in front of his brother, Adam, 36, who is battling brain cancer.

Throughout the season rumors swirled about Archuleta’s overbearing father Jeff.

In early May the Associated Press and TMZ reported that Jeff (who has insisted to Usmagazine.com that he’s “no stage dad”) was banned from backstage and show rehearsals.

The final straw was when Jeff reportedly insisted his son switch up the lyrics of “Stand by Me” ton include a verse from Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls,” despite warnings from show producers not to do so.

This is a hard battle. I have no idea which David is going to win tonight on American Idol. Due to yesterdays judges decision, the winner should be David Archuleta. But in my opinion, based on the performances, I think that David Cook should win.

My money is on David Archuleta. He is a 16 year-old power house, who sings ballads so beautifully and has been consistent every week. The only problem is that it seems like he can only sing ballads. When he tries to sing up beat pop songs he just sounds off, like he can’t keep up with the melody. So I don’t know exactly what he has to offer record wise.

I would love, love, love it if David Cook won. I have been a fan of his since he sang Lionel Richie’s Hello. And although some of his performances haven’t been that good, I must admit, when he sang Billie Jean and Eleanor Rigby, he got me excited about competition again. And like he said last night, this competition is about growth as an artist, and he has truely grown more than Archuleta has.

Both of these singers are phenomenal. I don’t think it really matters who actually wins. Both of their albums I’m sure will be great. But if Archuleta doesn’t win he can always follow Clay Aiken’s footsteps and do Broadway.

I turned on “American Idol” this evening and they are really building up the whole David Cook Versus David Archuleta battle! They even started the show with each of them coming out in boxing gloves. And although the two singers were very gracious towards one another, tonight’s show really is the brawl for it all!

David Cook did a great job on his opening song, but David Archuleta absolutely blew his version of ”Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” out of the box (to quote Randy Jackson)! And I’m so overwhelmed by Archuleta that I can not for the life of me remember what Cook sang for his opening song.

And Simon Cowell really said it best, “Round one goes to David Archuleta.”

Lyrics for Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me:

I can’t light no more of your darkness
All my pictures seem to fade to black and white
I’m growing tired and time stands still before me
Frozen here on the ladder of my life

Too late to save myself from falling
I took a chance and changed your way of life
But you misread my meaning when I met you
Closed the door and left me blinded by the light

Don’t let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself, it’s always someone else I see
I’d just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losing everything is like the sun going down on me

I can’t find, oh the right romantic line
But see me once and see the way I feel
Don’t discard me just because you think I mean you harm
But these cuts I have they need love to help them heal

“American Idol” had it all this season — talented singers, a David Archuleta for the prepubescent crowd, visits from pop royalty, stinging comments from Simon Cowell as usual, and jaw-dropping commentary from Paula Abdul. With all that provided on the show, why have some fans and observers found it a dull slog as the show builds to its David Archuleta vs. David Cook finale on Wednesday?

It seems contestants who were good but not memorable made for only mediocre television, according to show watchers. Where was the drama, the unpredictability, the oddball personalities? Where was the fun? I can’t believe I’m saying this… but maybe the show needs more idiots like Sanjaya?

Such criticism of this season’s show is ironic given the heat “Idol” took last year when Sanjaya Malakar, way more a hairstyle than a singer, held the spotlight of a semi-captive audience. Or remember the reaction when dancin’ man and over-rated singer Taylor Hicks won the title in 2006, relying on charm rather than skill?

Producers of the Fox show made an effort this year to go for vocal gold over glitz, and this is the thanks they get. We want good singers and bad singers, too! Viewer Mike Anderson chimed in with:

“The only thing that kept the entire thing from being excruciatingly boring was (apparent frontrunner) Michael Johns being voted off and the shiver it seemed to send through everyone. Because the talent level was so high, nothing anyone did was surprising.”

Dave Della Terza has long relished mocking “American Idol” on his Web site, VotefortheWorst.com, but counts himself among this season’s disappointed viewers. Dave said:

“In past years people would ask, `Do you hate “American Idol?”‘ I’d say it’s fun to make fun of, it’s so bad,” he said. “But this year, honestly, I’m so sick of the show. … It’s almost a chore to watch at this point.”

He’s hearing the same thing from visitors to his site and seeing it in the numbers, with traffic down about 50 percent. A major complaint cited by Della Terza: The contestants have remained cyphers. In other words, Jason Castro’s dreadlocks showed more character than any contestant.

“What do you really know about David Cook? All you really know about David Archuleta is his dad is annoying,” Della Terza said, referring to reports of backstage meddling.

“I think that’s why Sanjaya was so successful. Every week, he was coming out and showing personality. He flourished in a crowd of people who didn’t have personalities,” Della Terza said.

“American Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe isn’t buying the criticism. He says the talent this year has been “phenomenal” and he expects the David Cook vs. David Archuleta finale will be the “humdinger” that judge Cowell colorfully predicted last week.

Bob Lefsetz isn’t buying it. The music industry analyst says flatly that “the bloom is off the rose” after so many years. “Even if the new Aretha Franklin came on,” he said, “people would say, `Seen it. I’m going to watch something on YouTube.’”

Producer and judge Simon Cowell says he believes contestant David Cook should be crowned the winner of “American Idol.” In an interview with Blender, Simon admitted that he believes David “deserves” to win. Simon said:

“I think he’s done more to deserve it over the eleven weeks. He’s taken more risks, he’s done things with certain songs that have been more interesting. If I’m gonna base it on who has done the best performances over the live shows.”

If you are a David Archuleta fan, then you probably watched “American Idol” on Wednesday and saw them take a trip home with him to Salt Lake City, Utah. As moving as this trip home with David was, and as consistent as this kid has been over the season, something about him is totally off. The few times I have caught the show (OK, I watch it religously and even forums the forums), David Archuleta has seemed completely forums.

He really does have talent, but it also seems like he’s really well “baked.” You know, graaaass maaaaan. I’m not saying he’s a drug user, but he needs to wake up and smell the f#&king coffee! Actually, it might help if he took a couple puffs. But on the bright side, this dude has 13-year old girls throwing themselves at him and he’s still got a year before it’s not legal anymore.

But forget him, vote for David Cook — because he deserves to win!