As was typical for a season finale, American Idol padded the two hour’s worth of show in an attempt to close it out in grand fashion. In the process, they stumbled and fell spectacularly with one particular faux pas.

And that faux pas wasn’t the awful jacket Randy Jackson wore. (He had to have picked that up at “The Eyesore Store” …)

And it wasn’t the gratuitous flailings of the return of Jennifer Lopez to the Idol stage.

And it wasn’t the final song Candice Glover and Kree Harrison sang together to end the night, proving The Powers That Be continue to call on oldies which are unconnectable with the viewing audience. (One Less Bell To Answer and A House Is Not A Home … ??? Deciding to showcase those songs was one prime example why Idol has lost viewership. They bordered on cheestastic. Leading directly into the winner’s announcement, the final tunes should have been upbeat and should have left the audience on its feet cheering. Being somber was not the order of the evening.)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBC87KYkz18

It wasn’t even the gaudy “make-sure -you-use-the-entire-roll-of-double-sided-tape!” outfit Jesse J. wore on stage during her duet with Angie Miller. (Note: I didn’t know bare legs could go up that far and still be flaunted in front of a live studio audience with kids present.)

The faux pas of the evening was Mariah Carey’s performance. Or “performance” I should say … such that it was.

Yep. No matter how hard she tried, The Diva lip-sunk herself right into a hole she couldn’t climb out of. And it was painful to watch. Really painful. It’s one thing to lip-sync, another to do it well at the very least. But there were many moments when Carey wasn’t even trying to do a good job of it. She phoned that execution in. And as technical a performer as she’s said to be, I found her time on stage disappointing in the extreme. Her over-the-top British accent and hair flipping at the judges’ table throughout the season were bad enough. But her “performance” was deplorable. And no … I’m not going to post it here. It’s not worth the effort.

Not a good way to go out, Idol. Not a good way to go out at all. (Well … maybe it was for Nicki Minaj. It seems she may have gotten the last laugh on the season-long Carey/Minaj catfight.)

P.S. Congratulations on the win, Candice.

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