American Idol season 17 finale a good one

American Idol season 17 ended on a high note.

American Idol doesn’t have much to do with dogs on the surface. It is, after all, a singing competition for humans.

But the season 17 finale (second season on ABC) ended up being a good show after a rather lackluster season.

Contestants Laine Hardy, Madison Vandenberg and Alejandro Aranda were left to battle for America’s votes.

As always, the host was hosted by Ryan Seacrest, and the judges this year were again motown legend Lionel Richie, eccentric pop star Katy Perry and laid-back country star Luke Bryan, who adopted a senior dog named Poochie from a Nashville shelter a few months ago.

Guest performances came from season 5 winner and dog lover Carrie Underwood and season 8 runner up Adam Lambert, in addition to Weezer, Dan and Shay, Kane Brown, Kool and the Gang and others.

According to a pre-show Dog O’Day Twitter poll, the pre-show favorite to win was Alejandro, a quirky, chill dude from Pomona, California, with amazing piano and guitar skills. He earned nearly 70 percent of the votes on our poll.

Laine was second with 23 percent of the vote. A throwback teenage rocker from the swampland of small town Louisiana, he combined the stage presence of Elvis Presley with the fan appeal of season 10 winner Scotty McCreery, who recently adopted a Labrador puppy named Moose.

Madison won eight percent of the vote in our poll, which was surprising, as the high schooler from New York belted out pop ballads weekly, which appeals to many listeners.

Following the first two performances from each contestant, the fan vote determined that Madison earned third place. After that followed performances by the rest of the top 10 contestants, various celebrity special guests, and the judges.

The Beagle superstar Buddy Mercury, named after two rock legends in Buddy Holly and Freddie Mercury of Queen, should have been invited to perform, in our opinion.

The judge’s criticism was unfailingly positive all season, which wore a little thin after a while, like reading too much Edgar Guest poetry at one sitting. It also felt like the contestants weren’t growing as much as they could have when the show was on Fox (even after Simon Cowell left and the criticism grew more mellow).

Also, the season again felt much too rushed, lasting roughly three months from start to finish. That didn’t leave much time for the audience to connect with the contestants, either.

The nationwide vote finally determined that Laine Hardy became the newest winner of American Idol, and he then performed his debut single “Flame” as the credits rolled on another season.

What did you think of the finale? AROOO!!!