It's Carrie

We breathed a collective sigh of relief. The country girl from the midwest bested the stars-n-bars Southern rocker, but we got a pretty good show in the process as all of the finalists were paired (or tripled) off with (we're told) their own idols to perform duets. Some rang pretty true: Bo's take on "Sweet Home Alabama" with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Carrie joining up with Rascal Flatts. We're still pretty darn convinced that Vonzell Solomon would have been a great Idol after her duet with Billy Preston on "With You I'm Born Again".

We applaud the selection of Carrie Underwood because we're still smarting over last year's selection of Fantasia Barrino over Diana DeGarmo. It wasn't a very good year for the 2004-model Idols as neither made much of a dent on the music map. (I think William Hung got more work than either of them put together.) Compare that to past Idols like Kelly Clarkson and '03 runner up Clay Aiken (both of whom are coming to Toms River this summer - check this out), who are still on a lot of people's lips. But we're looking forward to a fresh voice on the country scene and hope to hear some great stuff from Carrie Underwood.