…Scotty McCreery is the winner of American Idol Season 10. Congrats to what seems like a truly decent kid, but this decision just furthers what has become an irrelevant show. Even Scotty’s last note was horrific, even for “Oh my goodness, I have to sing after winning this show” standards.

I don’t make many guarantees, but I did guarantee that Scotty would win the show, and I started making that prediction as soon as James Durbin was eliminated. In spite of what was most assuredly a landslide win, I’ll give you another guarantee — there’s no way that Scotty will come within grenade-range of a gold record. He might have a shot at beating Lee DeWyze’s bottom-dwelling sales status of perhaps 130,000 copies. But 500,000? Not unless this kid has been hiding vocals and charisma that he forgot to unveil in three months of American Idol performances. This show’s voters are insanely loyal when it comes to wearing out their dialing and texting fingers. But when it comes to plopping down some cash for a CD or download, most of them are conspicuously fairweather. They love the crappy performances by their faves as long as they’re free. But when they have to spend a little dough, it’s interesting how savvy and in-tune their ears become.

Again, none of this has anything to do with Scotty’s character, which appears to be as top-shelf as they come. But American Idol was never about finding the nicest person in the country — it was always about finding a great new solo artist. On that level, it has failed again.

Now bring on The Voice and X-Factor!