Fall TV Blog

After getting dropped from Arista Records, American Idol season six runner-up Blake Lewis says it’s not a big deal.

“Ring, ring, ring went the phone. Iain my manager baring the news. Arista isn’t picking up the second option,” writes Lewis on his MySpace blog. “Meaning, I’m not doing another record with them. I’m totally fine with this.”

Though he was a fan favorite on the show, the move comes after disappointing sales — roughly 300,000 copies sold — since Lewis released the album Audio Day Dream last Christmas.

“I guess the right time was now,” he writes. “No biggy.”

He is, at least, in good company. Past Idol winners Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard, and fellow runner-up Katherine McPhee, also lost their deals with Arista Records.

Next order of business? A tour, an album and a new label. “I’m still with 19 Recordings and I got a tour and new record on the way,” Lewis writes. As for the label, it’s “got to be a place where they actually respect my craft and electronic music.” –Danielle Anderson

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Jeff Archuleta may have gotten a bad rep for micromanaging his son, American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, but Idol winner David Cook doesn’t see it that way.

“I’ve never seen Jeff be anything but a caring, loving father, so for me it’s much ado about nothing,” Cook, 25, told PEOPLE on Saturday.

In fact, Cook looks forward to David’s dad joining them on the bus for this summer’s American Idols Live! tour that kicks off July 1 in Glendale, Ariz., and runs to Sept. 13. Cook says he will be working on a record at the same time as the tour “So I’ve got a busy summer,” he says.

He’s still dating former Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell, 26, whom he initially asked out last month while she was interviewing him during the Idol Tonight show.

“To sing in front of millions of people is one thing, but to ask somebody out, let alone with a camera in your face, is a completely different vibe,” Cook says.

“But I figured, ‘Why not?’ And it seems to have worked out so far.” –Bob Meadows and Scott Huver

Kathy Hutchins/Hutchins Photo

American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, 17, will have close supervision as he hits the road for the summer’s American Idols Live! Tour. His father Jeff, who had his backstage privileges revoked in the final weeks of Idol, will be on the tour bus with his son and the other top five guys (Michael Johns, David Cook, Chikezie and Jason Castro).

“I forgot about that,” David laughed coyly to PEOPLE when fellow Idol Carly Smithson asked Michael Johns if anyone on the guy’s bus snores. “Just your dad,” quipped Johns at the L.A. press day for the Pop Tarts presents American Idol Live! Tour 2008, which kicks off in Brooke White’s hometown of Glendale, Ariz., on July 1. (more…)

David Archuleta was feeling “blessed” on Father’s Day.

The Idol runner-up spent Sunday going to church and eating lunch at Soup Plantation with his father, Jeff.

“That was neat to be able to do,” he wrote on his MySpace page.

That, however, is a different image that Idol fans got of Archuleta’s dad during the singing competition.

Jeff Archuleta was the center of a minor controversy on American Idol when his backstage privileges were revoked after reportedly interfering with the production of the show.

While the 17-year-old spent Monday rehearsing for the Idol tour and taking business meetings, he said he wanted to take time out to thank his fans for the messages they sent to his dad on Father’s Day.

He wrote: “I really appreciate that and I know he does as well. He’s been great so I’m glad you guys took time to send him your messages. Hope everyone else’s dads had a great time too!” –Emmet Sullivan

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Former American Idol contestant Vonzell Solomon was detained for an hour on Tuesday when security discovered an unloaded handgun in her purse at Southwest Florida International Airport. Solomon, who finished third in Season 4, was charged with a misdemeanor for carrying a weapon into the airport. The gun was confiscated, but will likely be returned after the case is complete.

“Vonzell wants everyone to know that this was an honest mistake,” her manager and father, Larry Goethie, tells PEOPLE. “She had a big purse and just didn’t realize that the gun was in it.” He notes that Solomon has a permit for the weapon, and carries it for safety during her long road trips. “She’s a single woman, and she is sometimes in situations where she needs protection. She went through the classes for proper gun safety, and tries to do everything by the book.”

The Lee Port Authority, which manages the airport, is also treating the incident as a mistake. “She was actually charged with a violation of her concealed weapons permit,” spokeswoman Barbara-Ann Urrutia tells PEOPLE. “It is a misdemeanor, so she was given a notice to appear in court at a later date.” After receiving the notice to appear, Solomon called her father to pick her up from the airport. If convicted, she faces a fine of up to $1,000.

“This has been very upsetting to Vonzell,” says her father. “But everyone involved has been very kind to her, and they realize that it wasn’t intentional.” –Steve Helling

FOX

So what if he didn’t win American Idol! David Archuleta has inked a record deal with 19 Recordings/Jive Records, the same label winner David Cook is signed to.

“Signing a record contract with 19 Recordings/Jive Records is truly a dream come true,” Archuleta said in a statement. “I’m really excited to start working on everything.”

The 17-year-old Utah native already has three songs on the Hot 100 chart, including his memorable rendition of “Imagine” and “In This Moment,” the song he performed at the Idol finale.

Simon Fuller, the mastermind behind Idol and the chief executive of 19 Entertainment Label Group, called Archuleta a “genuine pop star” and said he “has a great future ahead of him.”

Still, Archuleta remains humble and cautious, telling PEOPLE last month that “school is really important, especially after all this ends. It would be nice to make a living off of it but you never know.”

Fans of Archie, as Cook affectionately calls him, should expect his debut album later this year. Up first: The Idols Live Tour, which starts July 1 in Arizona. –Shari Weiss

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American Idol champ David Cook has a busy summer ahead of him.

Cook, who has been signed to 19 Recordings/RCA Records, will record an album this summer while on the road with the American Idols Live Tour. According to a report on the label’s website, the 25-year-old singer’s debut album is due in the fall.

On the RCA site, label exec Tom Corson calls Cook an “extraordinarily versatile and talented artist” and “a natural performer and a true star,” adding, “We are thrilled to welcome him into our family.”

As of May 28, Cook’s first single, “The Time of My Life,” had sold 236,000 digital tracks in four days—the “best single debut of an American Idol since season two,” the report says, adding that Cook’s 17 tracks on the top 100 digital songs chart is also a record for a single artist.

Cook will join American Idol 7’s top ten—including Brooke White, Carly Smithson, Chikezie, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, Ramiele Malubay and Syesha Mercado—on the 49-city Idols tour beginning July 1 in Glendale, Ariz., former Idol Jordin Sparks’ hometown. The tour will wrap September 13 in Tulsa, Okla. –Kristen Mascia

Kathy Hutchins/Hutchins Photo

First came Kevin Federline. Now, Sanjaya Malakar will star in a campaign for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

The former American Idol contestant will appear in the company’s Life Comes at You Fast campaign — and he’s already filmed a spot in Pune, India.

“It turned out really funny,” Malakar tells PEOPLE about the ad. “I haven’t yet seen the finished product, but as it was going on, it turned out really well. It was a lot of fun to film.”

In the commercial, Malakar visits a monastery in India to seek advice from a guru who tells the teenager he needs to consider a retirement plan — and work on his hair. (Idol fans will remember that Malakar’s wild and wacky hairstyles were his calling card on season six of the reality competition.)

“I got to experiment with my hair again,” he says about the shoot. “It was the first time I was able to kind of experiment with my hair since [Idol] so that was fun to get back into that.”

As Nationwide’s newest spokesperson, Malakar says he takes the company’s slogan –- “life comes at you fast” — to heart. Just being on American Idol has helped.

“[My life has] changed drastically,” he says about his post-Idol fame. “I’m able to pursue my dream and sing for a living which is great.”

To that end, the singer says he’s been writing songs with producers in New York and Seattle, even traveling to Japan, an experience he credits with “broadening my musical vocabulary and getting a different perspective of music.” Says Malakar: “I have a general concept of the album … but now I’m actually able to execute it and watch it being executed and that’s a really exciting place to be.” –Brian Orloff, with reporting by Alondra Hernandez

Photo Special: A Look Back at Sanjaya’s Hair

UPI Photo/Landov

Preparing for the American Idol finale means long hours and hard work. But days before David Cook was declared the season seven winner, he dropped everything to visit with fellow Top 24 contestant Luke Menard in a Los Angeles hospital.

Menard, 29, was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“I love Luke and I just wanted to show up and make sure that he understood that I love him and know that if there’s anything I can do for him and his wife, sign me up, you know?” Cook tells PEOPLE. “Luke, Michael Johns, Jason Yeager and myself, we kind of buddied up one day at Hollywood week,” Cook explains. “We called ourselves the four horsemen. Any time one of your own is going through something as horrible as that, it makes everything else seem a little bit insignificant.

“Cancer,” says Cook, “is a very big part of my existence.” Cook’s older brother Adam has been battling brain cancer for 10 years. “I’m excited to be put in [the spotlight] where I can hopefully do something to help other people.” –Monica Rizzo

.Micelotta/Getty; FOX

American Idol’s Josiah Leming, the free spirit who was living out of his car when he failed to make the Top 24, now has a record deal — and a few choice words for the show.

“The fact is, it’s glorified karaoke — they pick people with pretty faces and the pretty voices, and they don’t let them write their own songs,” Leming, 19, tells MTV News.

The producers, he says, “pick these good-looking people with voices, and they have them sing these songs that other people have written.

“And therefore, it lacks passion, it lacks emotion and it lacks the things that set an artist off from being good to being great,” says Leming, who was booted during the Hollywood round of the show.

Still, Leming has no regrets. Thanks to the exposure on Idol, he has signed with Warner Bros. Records.

“As everyone clearly saw, I poured my heart and soul into the process and into the competition,” he says. “But looking back now, things could not have gone any better. Things happened perfect. I got the exposure. … People liked me, which was amazing, and I love my fans more than anything. I’m happy I didn’t make it. Looking back, it couldn’t have gone any better.”

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