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And while some contestants were chewed up and quickly spat out by the program, such as tabloid topic Jessica Sierra, performers such as Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry are making the show work for them. Such is the case with this year's runner-up, Blake Lewis, who recently released his debut album, Audio Day Dream.

"It's a new experience being on the show, it definitely was for me because I had never seen it," Lewis says from his tour bus en route to Lexington, Ky.

"I think those that have watched it every single year are a little bit more ahead of you. I'm glad that I never watched it so I didn't have to think that way."

The Seattle resident also says he never felt he was under the microscope of fans or media during the competition.

"When you're on the show it's like being in your own bubble and I've always been in my own world anyway," Lewis says. "I think in Hollywood you feel that way a little bit. Hollywood is so false. Everybody wants to know about you just so they can judge you."

Now out on his own, Lewis is quite proud of the new record. He says the biggest challenge for Audio Day Dream was simply getting it out prior to the Christmas season.

"It wasn't a hard album to make because I already had the songs written, all of the ideas were there and I just got together with the right people and got them done," he says.

"They weren't always tough. We usually got the song done in a day or two."

Lewis says four or five songs were left over from recording Audio Day Dream and some of those could end up on the album's European version. While he's a fan of all of the album's material, the song How Many Words is particularly special to him.

"The response to How Many Words is really big and that's always the song that I wanted to be a single," he says. "I'm pushing for that one really, really hard to become a single. It's just a matter of convincing the record label."

Another track Lewis mentions is Know My Name, which features a guest appearance from Lupe Fiasco. The song also describes Lewis' fascination with movie starlet Natalie Portman.

"Everybody usually has a celebrity crush, so it was a little bit about that," he says.

"I think she's a doll -- she's beautiful, smart, makes fun of herself."

Lewis, who spent this summer on the American Idols Live North American tour, doesn't spend much time reading his own press or watching his performances, except to critique his singing. But he was proud of the review by New York Times critic Jon Parles.

"He's their main guy and he pans everything, but he wrote a great review of the album," he says. "I felt very humbled and honoured to have a great review from the tough New York press."

The singer wraps up 2007 doing a few radio shows before heading back home for Christmas.

He won't have much time to rest though as he'll perform in New York as part of Fox's New Year's Eve Live telecast. He also plans on recording a "drum and bass" album next year.

Regardless, Lewis is quite happy that he's come this far.

"If I sold 100,000 albums then that's 100,000 albums that I never sold before," he says with a laugh.

"With each album sold I think of the one person that bought it and I think to myself, 'that's great.' "

Call it the great beat-box bamboozle

When he first appeared on American Idol, viewers saw Blake Lewis doing some beat-box scat while performing a cover of Seal's Crazy. But according to Lewis, what people saw and what actually happened were two different things.

"That's the magic of editing -- but what got me through was my version of Sunday Morning by Maroon 5," Lewis says. "They edited it and made me look like I was really cocky and stuff, but it was pretty funny. I told them I didn't want to do the beat-box thing and they made me beat-box.

"It was funny but I was just pissed when I saw it. I was like, 'Wow, they really edited everything.' "

Lewis says while he got feedback from the panel of Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, he never felt the urge to give Cowell a middle-finger salute.

"No, not really," he says. "He really didn't even look at me during the audition when I came on."

While not worried about who looks at him or not, Lewis is quite hands-on maintaining his MySpace site, part of his daily routine.

"I won't let anyone else touch that, I do it myself," he says. "I'm usually on it for an hour or two hours a day talking to fans, posting blogs, videos and putting up music."