‘American Idol’ series finale: Simon Cowell makes surprise appearance with Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson

Going into Thursday night’s “American Idol” series finale, we were seriously hoping that we would get to see Simon Cowell again. However, the music mogul was extremely cagey as to whether or not he was actually going to be showing up in the episode, claiming that there was a major scheduling conflict that could get in the way. Given that he is a judge on “America’s Got Talent” and also has the British version of the show to deal with, it’s clear that the man has a lot going on.

However, he found a way to make it work! Not only that, but Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul were also there. Given that these three judges were all a part of one of the biggest panels in the history of reality television, this was a wonderful gift for the show to give longtime fans.

Was this anything more than just a small / tiny TV moment? Not really, but by and large we still enjoyed every second of it anyway. We know that we’ve complained about this show and so many other things associated with it over time, but ultimately Nigel Lythgoe and the other executive producers really got it right over the course of the entire night. They brought back so many longtime favorites, and made this one of the biggest possible celebrations of music history possible. Having Simon there is really just the icing on the cake for what would’ve been a great evening no matter what.

Now, we just have to wait for the winner announcement…

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