TELEVISION 35.4 million viewers watched 'Idol' finale, Nielsens reveal

Winner Taylor Hicks says he's going to record an album 'as quickly as I can.'
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Fox's two-hour special that resulted in Alabama's Taylor Hicks being crowned the fifth "American Idol" was a big hit among viewers, drawing an audience of 35.4 million people, Nielsen Media Research said.
During the last half-hour of "Idol," where Hicks' victory over Katharine McPhee was announced, just under 43 million people were tuned in, Nielsen said.
That makes it the second most-watched "Idol" finale ever, behind only 2003's competition, and beats last year's contest won by Carrie Underwood. Last year's audience was 30.3 million.
ABC's two-hour "Lost" finale averaged 17.6 million viewers. But the numbers jumped after "Idol" went off the air: 19.3 million people were watching during the drama's final half-hour.
Hicks' reaction after winning the vote: "Stars do fall on Alabama."
Big plans
The Birmingham, Ala., 29-year-old, who wooed viewers with his raw singing style, wild dance moves and an unlikely mop of gray hair, said he wanted to travel back home to his legions of "Soul Patrol" fans, whom he thanked onstage the moment he won.
Then, he added, he wants to record a "really good" album, "with soul."
"I'm heading to the studio as quickly as I can," he said. "But I'll take a few days off to clear my head."
And he would love to tour with younger R & amp;B and rock artists such as John Legend and John Mayer, said Hicks, whose victory earned him a recording contract and a new car.
Hicks, who beat out the sultry brunette McPhee, 22, of Los Angeles, credited his win in part to "a love for music."
It also helped, he said, that he sang after McPhee did during Tuesday night's head-to-head competition.
Runner-up
Fans picked the soulful sound and footloose moves of Hicks, who made his mark on Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" on Tuesday's show, although McPhee's well-trained voice was shown to perfection on the standard "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
After Wednesday's show, runner-up McPhee said she hadn't expected to win and didn't have any regrets.
"It would really just be silly to feel bad for me at this point. I got a record deal, a new car," she said backstage.
McPhee said she planned to take a week off to see friends in New York and "go somewhere tropical" before embarking on the "American Idol" tour with Hicks and the other finalists.
As for the future, she said she wanted to model her career after Julia Roberts, and eventually go into movies and back to her musical-theater roots.
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