The end of it all…

They will announce the winner of the last season of this reality singing competition…

…today, Friday morning here and Thursday night in the USA after 15 seasons.

We did not get to see the first two seasons when the show started in 2002 as we did not have the show on the local television stations in our country at the time. That meant that we did not get to see the first-ever winner, Kelly Clarkson, one of the most successful of the lot, who gave this heart-wrenching performance when she guest-starred in one of the shows in this final season…and of course, we did not get to see Ruben Studdard either, who despite the win after beating Clay Aiken to second place, never really got off the ground.

Yes, after so many years, so many have won and so many have not managed to make it big in the music world and looking at some of those voted to become the winners, I certainly am not surprised as most, in my opinion, were really quite forgettable. On the other hand, there were others that I thought were really good but they were unceremoniously booted out, many even before they got anywhere near the finals.

So what about you? Have you watched the show at sometime or another? Who do you remember? Any memorable performances? I must say I do have a few like this one, for instance…

…who lost to the other guy by that same name in the finale.

I don’t think many would remember this lady…

…who was up against the likes of the eventual winner, Fantasia Barrino and also the very successful, Jennifer Hudson and this guy didn’t make it into the grand finale either…

…in Season 5 but he was on the recent Fox Live musical, The Passion, aired on Palm Sunday, playing the part of Judas Iscariot. Well, like many of the rest, he did not need to win either as he did have an impressive track record after he dropped out of the competition…and the same goes to this guy…

…that I was quite sure would win that year but didn’t…and how could this Filipino power pack of talent…

…not win? Tsk! Tsk!

Towards the later years, I did not watch the show that faithfully like I did initially and I do know of many who stopped following it as well, many out of frustration that some of the really good ones did not win or worse, were kicked out early in the show.

However, I did keep up with the updates online and I did watch some of the clips on youtube…and now that it has come to an end, I must say that I do feel a little sad but then again, there are lots of shows along these same lines here, there and everywhere all over the world. After all, as in the words of William Shakespeare, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.“