Unless you've been living under a rock (maybe the one Lady Gaga climbed during last night's "Edge Of Glory" performance?), then you know by now that the Season 10 "American Idol" finale aired last night. Scotty McCreery won, but I was thrilled to get to chat with some of this season's other standout contestants, as well as some "Idol" alums and...drumroll, please...James Durbin's finale night duet partner, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, when I worked the preshow red carpet last night.

Check out my red carpet interviews with this season's Pia Toscano, James Durbin, Casey Abrams, Paul McDonald, Ashthon Jones, and Thia Megia, along with former Idols Sanjaya Malakar (expressing his love to a blushing Thia), Tim Urban, Jason Castro, Blake Lewis, and Michael Sarver.

And make sure to wait for the fabulously leather-sheathed, rivet-studded Rob Halford, who had plenty of nice things to say about James.

On Wednesday night, a new American Idol was crowned. Congrats, Scotty McCreery. But this news was actually anti-climactic compared to everything else that occurred in the 117 minutes leading up to Ryan Seacrest's big announcement. If anything, there were so many great performances by the contestants who didn't make it to the finale, it was enough to make viewers wonder if they'd voted wrong when they elected the final two. Perhaps this was not the agenda "Idol" producers had in mind when they planned this show...but their loss was our gain, because we were all treated to a night of fine Idolicious entertainment.

Here were the night's biggest highlights:

8) Jennifer Lopez Proves She Should Be A Judge On "SYTYCD" Instead
Any viewers who saw J.Lo and her admittedly more vocally gifted husband Marc Anthony duet at the 2005 Grammys were probably relieved that J.Lo refrained from singing when Marc performed on the "Idol" finale, instead just doing what she does best: Shaking her famous

Last night on "American Idol," Lauren Alaina almost didn't get to compete against Scotty McCreery in the final showdown, when she lost her voice during rehearsal and had to seek medical treatment. This health scare was milked for all it was worth, of course, with a doctor coming out onstage at the start of the episode to dramatically grant Lauren official permission to go on with the show. But once the show was over, it was time for Lauren to give people the silent treatment.

Lauren was back on voice rest once she'd performed her three songs, so when she came backstage last night after the show, she answered reporters' questions with a little help from her interpreter (Scotty), plus a notepad and pen. Writing down her answers, Scotty read them aloud, in a cute act of teamwork. Cutest of all? When one journalist asked Scotty if he was going to heed Jennifer Lopez's suggestion that he shave his head, Lauren wrote "NO" in big block letters and held it up for everyone to see.

Watch Scotty

Over on Fox, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery were battling for the Season 10 "Idol" title, but on NBC, the real battles were going down Tuesday night. "The Voice's" Battle Rounds (the stage of the game in which the show's four celebrity coaches--Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, and Christina Aguilera--pit their own teammates against each other) continued. And while some of the coaches' decisions made sense, Adam stupidly got rid of one of his strongest players, in what was the first real shock elimination of the season. This sort of was to "The Voice" as Pia Toscano's cut was to "Idol."

Here's what went down in the sing-off ring this week:

RAQUEL CASTRO vs. JULIA EASTON
These two very young girls from Team Xtina dueled on Rihanna's "Only Girl In The World," in hopes of being the only girl to emerge unscathed. But both girls had their pitch problems (even Christina acknowledged this), so this turned out to be one of the more underwhelming battles of the season. I preferred