‘American Idol’ judges, executive producer react to historic Season 23 finale: ‘America needed to see the two of them standing together’

'"By the way, that's 26 million votes," said Lionel Richie. "If you think it's all Black folks, if you think it's all Latinos, I'm telling you that AMERICA voted.”

John Foster and Jamal Roberts, seconds before Ryan Seacrest’s Season 23 winner announcement.

It seems wrong to call Jamal Roberts’s victory on the American Idol Season 23 finale a “surprise,” since he is without question one of the greatest male vocalists to ever compete on the show. But many Idol pundits, myself included, thought that teen country crooner John Foster, who ultimately placed second, might prevail instead.

“We had no idea what was going to happen coming into it, even until the last moment,” judge Carrie Underwood admitted backstage after Sunday’s grand finale. Judge Lionel Richie gave runner-up Foster his props, declaring, “As far as I'm concerned, we ended up tonight with two No. 1 people,” and longtime executive producer/showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick said Season 23’s result “felt like an old-school Idol finale; it felt like Ruben-versus-Clay in that way.” But it was not lost on Richie that Roberts is the first Black man to win Idol since Ruben Studdard did so 22 years ago, and he had much to say about this landmark victory.