The gleam of the American Idol brand is brighter than ever after CNNMoney.com reported that billionaire and media magnate Robert F.X. Sillerman made a successful bid to take the AI franchise owner, CKX Inc (NASDAQ: CKXE) private. CKX announced Friday it accepted the offer from a group led by its current CEO, Sillerman, for $1.3 billion. Since Sillerman and other board members already owned 46% of outstanding capital stock, sale approval was a slam dunk.

The offer of $13.75 per share carried a 29% premium. However, according to the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat, this fell well short of the $20-25 value investors placed on the stock.

Other CKX holdings include the rights to Elvis Presley, his music and his Graceland estate, as well as the rights to the name, image, and likeness of Muhammad Ali.

The company is attempting to grow its Presley line by enlisting the help of Cirque du Soleil in creating Presley-themed shows. It already has a deal with MGM Mirage to stage a permanent, live Presley show on the Strip in Las Vegas beginning in 2009. CKX also operates the Heartbreak Hotel, near Graceland, which might be a good place for the stockholders who feel the sale price was low to commiserate.

The company also plans to extend its Idol franchise worldwide. Since Simon (who needs a last name?) is contracted to the company, as well as holding a seat on the board of directors, we can safely assume his involvement won't be affected by the transition.

Tonight and tomorrow mark the culmination of 40-plus hours of prime-time broadcast, hundreds of performances, and millions of tears as American Idol crowns its sixth champion. The ratings juggernaut for News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) FOX network has three more hours of advertising revenue before it wraps for the season.

For those among us who still care (I tuned out around final-four time), it's the critical moment where America (ostensibly) decides between eccentric beatboxing innovator Blake Lewis and teenaged belter Jordin Sparks.

The Kodak Theatre will be bursting at the seams, Simon Cowell will likely have traded his trademark plain tee-shirt for a suit, and Paula Abdul will have a bandaged face after a mishap with her Chihuahua. According to her publicist, the kindest of Idol's judging trio fell this weekend, breaking her nose and fracturing her toe as she avoided trying to step on her miniature pooch. The spokesman for the former pop star said that "She's a little sore, but is doing fine."

The dog was not hurt.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

I was outraged this morning when my local news station broadcast the results from last night's "American Idol" -- Melinda Doolittle was voted off.

Simon Cowell made his preferences clear on Tuesday night. He wanted Jordin Sparks off and expected two finalists: Doolittle for her consistently excellent singing and Blake Lewis for his risk taking. I am guessing he thought those two had the best chance to make him money through record sales. I would have preferred to see Lewis go since I find him a mediocre singer who uses -- what I find very annoying "beatboxing" -- to make up the difference.

So why did Doolittle lose? There is no way to find out why she got fewer votes but my hunch is that she lacks charisma. Lewis probably took up the Sanjaya Malakar slack with the 12 year old girls and 17-year old Sparks exudes confidence and talent. While Doolittle lacks that magical quality, there is no doubt that she can sing better than the two finalists.

And if her post-Idol career is anything like last season's #4, Chris Daughtry's, Doolittle will be fine. However, with Doolittle off the show, it may hurt the ratings a bit for Idol owner, CKX Inc. (NASDAQ: CKXE) and News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in CKX or News Corp.

Last night's American Idol yielded two big shockers this morning: Sanjaya Malakar can sing and J.Lo may be splitting with her husband.

As J.Lo said at the beginning of the show "I think the key to any Latin thing is passion." Malakar, who sang "Bésame Mucho" delivered on that premise -- particularly with the Spanish vocals. And I guess that J.Lo is not getting that Latin thing from her husband -- Marc Anthony. MSNBC reports that she blames Anthony for her stalled career and his "controlling ways" -- and plans to divorce him.

But none of this matters. What's really important is that if Malakar can sing, he's no longer the worst. And who will Howard Stern pick to replace him?

Vote for the Worst enjoys being a fly around the Tyrannosaurus Rex that is "American Idol."

`"American Idol" isn't really a talent competition," said Dave Della Terza, who founded the snarky Web site in 2004, in an interview. "It's a carefully crafted realty show."

Della Terza hasn't made many friends at Fox and its corporate parent News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) or among rabid fans who regularly accuse him of trying to ruin America's most popular television show. Their angry emails on Vote for the Worst are hysterical.

Topic number one on the minds of his readers is Sanjaya Malakar. For those of you who are in a cave or in a coma, Malakar is a hapless young man who has managed to charm his way into the hearts of the American public. Every week, millions of viewers wait to find out what pop song the 17-year-old will butcher next.

In other words, Malakar is perfect for Vote for the Worst.

"It's pretty obvious that he's scared out of his mind," he said. "It's so awkward that the judges never know what to say."

Last night was no exception. Malakar put his long flowing brown hair into a mock Mohawk. His rendition of No Doubt's "Bathwater" was weird. Simon Cowell summed it up perfectly when he said that at this point it doesn't matter what the judges say about Malakar. Cowell is Sanjaya's "favorite" judge because he's "brutally honest," according to the show's Web site.

This season has had a few highlights for Della Terza. Idol contestant Chris Sligh, the chubby guy with the curly hair, gave him a shout out after finishing one of his songs. The site was also mentioned on VH1's "Best Week Ever."

"He understands the humor behind our Web site," he said of Sligh.

Maybe he'll have more time to enjoy Vote for the Worst. Sligh's rendition of "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" didn't rock the house.

Try as it might, Fox can't ignore Vote for the Worst.

The site gets about one million hits a day and as many as four million hits on show nights. I had trouble getting on Vote for the Worst during last night's broadcast.

Vote for the Worst makes money, but not enough for Della Terza to make a living, he said.

Della Terza took pains to point out that he has a real job. Actually, he's got two of them.

"This is definitely not a job," he joked.

Some of you may be bored with my American Idol fascination by now, and still others do not share my view that studying this show has any relation to the stock market. In either case I will continue to follow the Sanjaya saga as if I were following a possible acquisition.

Sanjaya survives again!? For those of us who were originally perplexed, along with Simon Cowell, as to how he could be voted into the top twelve -- Holy Cow Batman! -- Sanjaya is now in the top eleven.

When I first tried to rationalize his success I posted: American Idol: Are Indian call centers skewing the vote? Which created as much a stir as Sanjaya's success. One of my detractors was VR, who expressed his displessure with my post. I used his comments in the: Sunday Funnies: American Idol - Indian Idle, although he was not that funny. Out of respect for a contrary opinion and his right to have one I asked him if he would like to comment further and here is what he said:

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. Vote for Simon Cowell's T-shirt or check out the other signature styles.

Simon Cowell, the snarky judge of the successful reality shows American Idol and POP Idol, is probably best known for exactly that -- his style of judging. His direct, no-nonsense, politically incorrect and brutally honest commentary has earned him nicknames such as Judge Dread and Mr. Nasty (probably naasty with a British accent).

Simon Cowell ranked 29th in the Forbes Top 100 Celebrities list, with his top attributes being "rude" and "mean." It's no wonder when he says to contestants things like, "If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning."

But as much as Simon Cowell is known for his snarky ways, he's also known for his manly monochromatic T-shirt collection, most notably the tight black Armani T-shirt, of which he owns 30, no less.

Jeans and T-shirt -- gotta love that, don't you? Who wouldn't wish to become rich and famous without ever worrying too much about what to wear? Wouldn't it be great if you knew that whenever and wherever you went, you could wear your jeans and black T-shirt? And this might be the exact appeal of Simon Cowell's "uniform"; it's plain, simple and any of us can do it. That's what I like about it. Cowell doesn't dress too fancy or patronizing (like fellow weasel Ryan Seacrest), so that when he says what he has to say, it's taken seriously.