Lee DeWyze won and Simon Cowell triumphantly rode off into the “American Idol” sunset.
The unassuming Midwestern crooner was named “American Idol” champ last night in Los Angeles, capping Season 9 of the Fox talent show.
DeWyze, who sold paint in Mount Prospect, Ill. before his meteoric rise to stardom, bent over in exhaustion when show host Ryan Seacrest revealed the results.
VIDEO: PAULA ABDUL BIDS FAREWELL TO SIMON COWELL
Floored by the joyous news, DeWyze could barely string together a sentence without saying: “Oh my God!”
“This is amazing, Crystal I love you,” he told runner-up Crystal Bowersox. “There’s no words to describe it. It’s amazing.”
Bowersox, 24, had been the show’s early favorite.
Although the dread-locked single mom from Toledo never stumbled, fans grew to love DeWyze’s humble, inconspicuous manner.
“Lee had the story arc that ‘American Idol’ watchers love — he grew on the show and didn’t start already set as an artist,” said Abigail Simmons, who writes an ’Idol’ blog for BuddyTV.com.
Last night’s show also brought down the curtain on the delightfully tyrannical rule of “Idol” judge Cowell.
The acid-tongued Brit announced before the season’s start that he wouldn’t be back for the 10th edition of “Idol.”
Instead, he’ll bring his “Idol”-like British show “The X-Factor” to American TV, also on Fox, in September, 2011.
Throughout last night’s show, “Idol” played a variety of Cowell’s most memorable barbs:
* “That was extraordinary,” Cowell told one smiling contestant before lowering the boom, “unfortunately extraordinarily bad.”
* “There’s nothing wrong with working with a dummy,” Cowell told a ventriloquist, while eyeing fellow judge Paula Abdul.
* “I’m the one on the show, without sounding conceited, who actually knows what they’re talking about,” Cowell once so humbly said.
* “Phone up your vocal coach, and demand a refund,” Cowell told one failed contestant.
“Idol” rolled out the red carpet last night and brought a cavalcade of A-List performers and groups to the Nokia Theatre stage: Alice Cooper, the Bee Gees, Christina Aguilera, Hall & Oates, Alanis Morissette, Carrie Underwood, Bret Michaels, Chicago, Janet Jackson and Joe Cocker.
But, the show’s singular, unplanned moment actually looked like a planned gaffe.
During a music bit by comic Dane Cook, with several “Idol’’ rejects singing backup, Upper East Side entertainer Ian Benardo seized the mic and proclaimed his “Kanye moment‘’ before directors hastily cut to commercial.
Bernardo told The Post early this morning that Cook and his reps angrily called him anti-gay slurs backstage. “As if I was going to stand up there and play second fiddle to Dane Cook,’’ he said.
Underwood was joined on stage by six of her fellow “Idols” — Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks and Kris Allen — for a musical tribute to Cowell.
Even Cowell’s former “Idol” sparing partner, Abdul, came back to wish him well.
“Everyone asks who is going …to replace me,” Cowell told the audience. “The truth is you guys are the judge of the show, and you’ve done an incredible job over the years.”