And the historic ‘American Idol’ Season 23 winner is…

Twenty-six million votes actually can't be wrong! This year, America got it very right.

History was made on Sunday’s American Idol finale, when — after the largest finale tally in the ABC history of the series, with 26 million live, coast-to-coast votes — Jamal Roberts was declared the winner of Season 23.

It had been 22 (yes, TWENTY-TWO!) years since a Black man, Ruben Studdard, had won Idol, and since then, only one other Black man, the late, great Willie Spence, had even made the top two. Frankly, based on those sorry statistics, I’d feared that Jamal (undoubtedly the greatest vocalist among this season’s top three, and arguably one of the best vocalists to ever compete on the show) would place third, behind white country singers John Foster and Breanna Nix. But America got it right this time. So, thanks, America!