American Idol: The Cook and Archuleta exit interviews...

David Cook and David Archuleta have been on some kind of media blitz since "American Idol" ended Wednesday. So by the time they got around to doing some interviews with print journalists like me early Friday morning, I expected them to be running on fumes.

Runner-up Archleta, 17, admitted that he was "out out of it" but Cook, the surprise champion, sounded fresh and focused. After his win, he stayed awake through the night, started doing live TV shows before dawn and "I got an hour nap in midway through the day."

I wondered how the heck these guys managed to perfect the three songs they did during the Tuesday night finale as well as all of the duets and group numbers they had to learn for the results show Wednesday.

Cook, as the winner, also had to perform as additional song: "They made it very very easy for us. With everything going on, it's just a matter of focusing on each song at a time...It's just taking a step back and going one moment at a time."

It's a good thing the lyrics are on a teleprompter!

As for Archuleta, the workload was even more intense since, as a high school junior, he still had to spend part of the day with school work: "As the weeks went on, we had more songs to learn," "This final week was the busiest of all. It was hard to find time to even rehearse and stuff, along wuith school and everything else going on."

Here are some other tidbits:
Archuleta on his controversial father who was banned from rehearsals toward the end of the season: "I hadn't heard really much of it until later on. I tried to stay away from the press...I didn't like to hear anything on the news good or bad. I wanted to stay myself...I wanted to keep who I was, the normal teenage David...There were really weird things, like he refused to give me water. That's the weirdest thing. I'm 17 and if I want water, I'm pretty sure I'd just go and get it anyway...I'm old enough to have enough control over myself...He's a great guy. There isn't really anything he's done that's bad like the things that have been spoken about him. My family has just been so supportive and kept me grounded...They get what I love about music and how it's changed my life."

Cook on beating Archuleta by 12 million votes:"I think the number is actually very misleading...I thought Archie was probably a lttle bit ahead of me...There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there. I attribute the finale vote just to my fans being awesome...(Archuleta) handled himself with a lot of grace. He's just an amazing, amazing human being."

Archuleta on Cook's victory: "I think he just deserved it so much. He deserved to be the American Idol. He's such a great guy too. My main priority wasn't to win the competition, it was just to do my best...We both gave it all, we just poured it all on that stage on Tuesday night and we both feel really good about it."

Cook on his first post-"Idol" record: "I think it's gonna be a mixture of my writing and hopefully writing with some other people. I just want to come out of the gate with some good music. It will probably be a rock record...I just want to make a record that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

Archuleta on his future: "Even after this interview I still have to go to school. School is really important. It was my main priority before this...I wasn't sure if I was able to get anywhere with music...You never know how long it will last. I want to do music all my life, I just don't know if I'll be able to do music the rest of my life."

Many had compared Cook to previous fourth-place finisher Chris Daughtry, the biggest-selling non-winner in "Idol" history. Some suggested that not winning the title would havre been better for David's rock and roll cred.

"I think to go into this with the idea that you don't want to win is a huge slap in the face to the 103,000 people who auditioned this season that really wanted to win. ... As far as having more success by not being a winner, I think that's something that'll get played out hopefully in the next couple of years. I think Daughtry's success is amazing. And so for me, right now, I'm not trying to be Daughtry. I'm just trying to put out a solid record."