the buzz log

So there we were Wednesday night, ensconced on the couch for the "American Idol" finale. We're West Coast here at the Buzz, so we'd already peeked online to see who won. But once that question had been answered, we still had a host of things to wonder about as the finale unfolded.

Idol faithful, dabblers, and even sneering holdouts had their own burning search questions about Fergie's height and Rod Stewart's wives. (We expect that it was the holdouts responsible for the wee rise in "who is kris allen" lookups.)

Searchers more familiar with the Adam vs. Kris duel tried to make sense of the results. "Why did adam lambert lose," wailed some. Others asked, "how many votes did kris allen win by."

We felt a pang of sympathy when we saw the spikes on "what happened to david cook's brother" and "did david cook's brother die." Adam Cook's battle with brain cancer was a familiar story to Idol fans in 2008, but Idol dabblers likely missed the news that Adam (the inspiration for David Cook's performance of "Permanent" at the finale) died this past May 2.

Perhaps the biggest search question for this entire Idol season was "is adam lambert gay." Of course finale night saw a reprise of that already-old chestnut of a query. Fascination with the love lives of both Adam and Kris reverberated: "is adam lambert straight," "is kris allen gay," "is kris allen married," "who is adam lambert dating," and "does kris allen have children."

Speaking of children, we weren't alone in thinking that Carrie Underwood's dress had a hint of baby bump ("is carrie underwood pregnant?").

After Adam Lambert finished up his lovely rendition of "Beth," users quickly got their answer to "who sings beth" - it's KISS. And whenever KISS shows up, a spike on "how long is gene simmons's tongue" can't be far behind. The wide and thickly-made up men of Detroit Rock City also prompted queries about "what does KISS stand for" and "KISS band member names."

Another buzz tradition: Whenever there's a parade of music legends on TV, you can bet that viewers will want to know how old those legends are ("how old is lionel Richie," "how old is gene simmons," "how old is cyndi lauper," "how old is [banjo legend!] steve martin").

By far the most fascinating oldster to take the stage was the plaid-clad, slippery-stepped Rod Stewart, who inspired such variations on the theme as "rod stewart age," "rod stewart birth date," "when was rod stewart born," and - our personal favorite - the overly specific "how old is rod stewart currently." We can report that at 6:30 PST on the night of Wednesday, May 20, Rod Stewart was (if the Internet can be trusted, that is) 64 years, four months, and 18 days old, give or take an hour or two. We cannot, however, confirm the common search suspicion about Stewart's state of mind: "rod stewart drunk." But we will admit to wondering the same thing ourselves.

In the hours after the big upset, some viewers needed to remind themselves: "what does the american idol win." A true source of debate, now that presumptive American Idol Adam Lambert has officially lost his crown. But — as Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson can attest, the "official" American Idol isn't the only one who wins.