"The race was pretty close this year, as runner-up Willie Spence and third-place finisher Grace Kinstler were also deemed frontrunners at various times."

"But during the penultimate episode, [Chayce] Beckham made a strategic move that all but ensured his victory: He doubled down on country, returning to the genre he started out with on the show, and sang an original song that wound up topping the iTunes country chart... When the final four... had to perform a song that would be released as a single, Beckham was the only contestant who wrote the song himself. The lyrics on the track, titled '23,' were very personal. ('Now I’m 23 and therе ain’t nobody who can drink like me/Soon I’ll be 24, and thе Lord knows that I can’t drink no more.') Beckham spoke throughout the season about getting sober after hitting 'rock bottom' last year and crashing his car while driving drunk, which led to a DUI charge shortly before his 'Idol' audition. '23' clearly struck a chord, as it rocketed up iTunes to the No. 1 spot on the country chart and in the Top 10 on the all-genre chart...."

From "This season of ‘American Idol’ was a close competition — until one very strategic move by the winner" (WaPo).

I didn't watch "American Idol" this year, just never felt inclined to check in and see what was happening until I did a search a moment ago and saw the whole competition was already over. Why didn't I watch? Why did I watch when I watched? 

I probably stopped suddenly and completely because I subscribed to Netflix and that, instead of my DVR, became my starting place whenever I was in the mood to watch television. 

And that coincided — for some reason — with my being less often in the mood to watch television. Maybe because there's less of a feeling that things are happening on television. What's on television now feels more like what's in books. It's all just sitting there, waiting for you to select it. It doesn't flow by without you. So "American Idol" flowed by without me. 

Here's that song, another country song about drinking too much: