A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

AT THE END OF THE STORM IS A GOLDEN SKY, AND THE SWEET SILVER SONG OF A LARK: It's Idol finale night, and with the ratings down from last season, Lisa de Moraes decided to investigate:

"Season 5 was the season to emulate, and we knew that going into this season it would be hard to match," Fox reality-programming chief Mike Darnell told The TV Column in a phone interview. "This is a better season than [No.] 3 and as good as 4. It only pales slightly compared to 5 -- as do all the other seasons."

Talentwise, Darnell said, "this is going to be one of our better finales."

What Season 5 had, he says, was not just good singing talent, but diversity of characters. That included rocker Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, pretty Katharine McPhee and good ol' boy Hicks. "It had a lot of different characters and everybody had someone they could connect with.

"Year 5 had the best characters we've ever had."

I will steal an insight from The Wife to note that all of the seasons since they raised the eligibility age to 28 (Season 4 on) have been more talented top-to-bottom than the three which preceded it. Now, I'd put season 4 over season 5 because I loved what Bo and Constantine brought to the table and hated, hated Taylor Hicks. But this season has been pretty fun to watch, with a deep talent pool and no real results controversies until last week, and these final three (bloated) hours are going to be fun. ThingThrowers, who ya got?