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They're calling it the biggest upset in "American Idol" history. Kris Allen, the laidback, quiet boy-next-door, over Adam Lambert, the outgoing glam rocker.

But I wasn't surprised. And if you've been reading this column all season, you shouldn't have been either, since I told you it could happen. In fact, in my blog Tuesday night, I even predicted it. But I'm not one to say I told you so (even though I did).

The shocked and angry Adam fans have a number of theories as to why their guy didn't win, many of which I detailed in last week's column. But because I don't want to get into a debate over Adam's personal life or Kris' religion, I'm going to stick with what I think is the real reason Adam lost -- too many people bought into the hype.

Everyone's been talking about how shocking Kris' win was because Adam was the frontrunner. But who declared him the frontrunner? The media? The judges? How do we know he was the top vote-getter most of the season? We don't. One fan told me that I needed to look at the views of Adam videos on YouTube. But how many of those views were fans, and how many were just people looking to see what all of the fuss was about?

And the whole time Adam was getting all of this attention, Kris was amassing an army of fans. Notice that the show never revealed the margin of votes between Kris and Adam. Maybe it wasn't nearly as close as everyone thought it would be.

I've had a lot of Adam fans tell me that many of Kris' votes were not for him, but were instead against Adam; but I don't agree. I think if those votes were against anyone, they were against the show itself. I almost feel like Kris' win was a message to the show from America. The voters rose up against the "Idol" machine and told it that we would choose who we wanted and not who the show shoved down our throats. Even the judges themselves seem to have received the message when they started showing Kris a lot more love with their comments during the finale.

So you would think this season would teach the show a valuable lesson about trying to manipulate the viewers, and I believe it has. The producers have learned that they'll just have to be more clever next year. After all, producer manipulation has become as much of an "Idol" tradition as Randy Jackson saying "for me for you" or Paula Abdul talking nonsense.

One thing I hope has not become an "Idol" tradition is Kara DioGuardi. The fate of the fourth judge is still up in the air as of this writing, but I hope that she will not return next year. She had a chance to redeem herself by co-writing the "Idol" winner's single, but she couldn't even get that right. I think we should consider the fourth judge a failed experiment and move on to next year.

Before we do move on, however, let me just say for the record that I do not believe that the best singer won this year. But I do believe that the right singer won. Adam is going to be just fine, but Kris needed this win to make a name for himself. Without the title, he would have been just another "Idol" finalist with a failed album. Now he has the chance to really do something special -- a chance he completely earned on the show.

However, there is a part of me that wishes we could have seen Adam on that mini-stage wailing about mountains and hurricanes. Those pyrotechnics would have worked great with that scream of his.

Every April, I start counting down the weeks until "Idol" is over and I can get my life back. But when it is finally over, I have to admit , I get a little sad. Fortunately, I have my song downloads, ringtones and tour tickets to hold me over until January, when we can do this all over again.

Thanks to all of you for taking the journey with me this season. And thanks to all of the people behind-the-scenes who made me look so good.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my housework, now that my excuse for not getting it done is over.

Angela Henderson is a diehard "American Idol" fan who chronicles the show, contestants, judges and much more in her "Idol Chit-Chat" blog on www.herald-dispatch.com.

Ray Mickshaw/FOX

The "American Idol" season 8 winner Kris Allen is announced during the finale on May 20, 2009.

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Ray Mickshaw/FOX

The "American Idol" season 8 winner Kris Allen is announced during the finale on May 20, 2009.

Purchase this photo