American Idol

Special performances:
The Top 12 (minus Bo and Carrie) sang a Beach Boys Medley, which featured the following songs: "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Barbara Anne", "In My Room", "Surfer Girl", "I Get Around" and "Good Vibrations".

Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood both sang a song from the previous night, with Bo singing "Vehicle" and Carrie singing "Angels Brought Me Here"

Bo and Carrie sang a duet. "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Crocker and Jennifer Warnes

There was a celebrity Medley in which the different contestants sang with their Idols. This is the first time celebrities have sung with the Idols. The medley included: "Bless The Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts (performed by Carrie and Rascal Flatts), "I Believe I can Fly" by R Kelly (performed by Anthony, Anwar and Kenny G), "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith (performed by Constantine, Jessica, Nadia and Kenny Wayne Shepherd), "On Broadway" by The Drifters (performed by Scott, Niko and George Benson), "With You I'm Born Again" by Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright (performed by Vonzell and Billy Preston),"Every Time I Close My Eyes" by Babyface (performed by Mikalah, Lindsey and Babyface) and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynrd Skynrd (performed by Bo and Lynrd Skynrd-later joined by all the rest of the performers).

Carrie performed what would be her debut single "Inside Your Heaven" after it was announced she won.

When Simon was being interviewed by Ryan there was a lot of technical issues when they tried talking to La Toya and Matt.

After Bo's solo performance Ryan announced that they would be visiting Carrie's home and then a scene from Carrie's hometown came up on the screen then switched the the AI symbol then back again.

Since the end of this season it has been announced by one of the producers that Carrie won every single week of voting.

Ryan announced that the winner would receive free use of a private jet. He did not mention it, but it was a one year deal only.

For the first time a person who works for the voting company (Edward Boddington) came on stage to give Ryan the envelope which had the results. Ryan opened the sealed envelope live on stage. This is done in every season now. In season 2 Clay had said he saw the envelope back stage and that is how he knew he hadn't won, this was probably a big reason behind doing it this way. Also, to prevent any advanced knowledge, neither Carrie nor Bo sang the winner's song, since in season 3 Diana had sad she figured out she lost when she sang that song 10 minutes before the results were read.