Scott- So up next is the host of Canadian Idol, Ben Mulroney. So, Ben, did you have any idea?

Ben- Did I have any idea he was going to win? No. You look at it and Jaydee had never been in the bottom three all season. I know who's in the bottom three and obviously who gets kicked off the show every week, but we never know who is at the top of the vote getting, so I didn't know whether it was going to be a landslide or not. The indication that CTV gave us this week was that the margin of difference at the end of last week was two per cent, so then you have to ask yourself, 'Where were Carly Rae's votes going to be?' and who knew? I think if people voted solely on performance last week that Brian was the clear winner. But if they went on the body of work and the X factor of what they liked, then it was entirely possible that Jaydee was going to win.

Q- Following the whole show as a host, what do you think of the winner this season?

Ben- Sometimes it's the cutest route, and other times it's exactly as it should be. Every single person that went home it was the right person…. But the way I see it as really based solely on that performance that week. I don't think that I try to look at it any other way. Based solely on the performance that I see that week, who do I think is the weakest?

Last year, about midway through I realized that Eva Avila was really the best person. …one viewer one guy, she was the best person to win that show. And this year, the same sort of thing. After the top five, I looked at Brian and said, 'He's the guy who should really win this thing,' because he kept putting these great performances together and he really cared about his performances. So sometimes someone goes home a little too early for my taste and sometimes someone stays a little bit longer than they necessarily deserve. But in the end it was about getting at the one person and we got it right this year. I think we got it right pretty much every year.

Q- So Ben, do you ever vote?

Ben- I don't vote. I don't want to cloud it. I got an awful poker face. I don't want to give anything away. I don't find out who gets eliminated until literally the commercial break before.

Q- Have you been offered the option?

Ben- I have been offered the option, but I really don't want it. I would have this dead man walking look on my face, so I don't really want to know. I sort of want to be surprised in the moment too. What I say to them at the end of the show isn't scripted, and I sort of make that up in the moment, because I want it to be honest, and how I'm feeling in that moment is what I said.

Q- How real was it, or was it scripted when you threw your script away when Greg was voted out?

Ben- No, it's not scripted. There are lots of parts of the show that are exceptionally scripted and you have to be. You have to get phone numbers right and you have to give each competitor an equal amount of time; the only way to do that is to script it. And throws to commercial and the product integrations and that is just a part of the business of the show. Everything else, the sentiment of the show and what the judges say to scripted questions, is unscripted. But then my reactions to things are never scripted. I think it would come off as very, very trite if they were. But never. What we say at the end of the show, what I say as a reaction to whoever is eliminated is never scripted.

Q- Ben, tell me friend to friend, you never peek?

Ben- No, I find out in the commercial break right before. We're talking 30 seconds and that's just so I say the right name and so I don't say, 'Holy beep.' That's the only reason I look at it right before so that I can know what I'm saying to the people who are going to be hearing it.

Q- But tonight there was no pleasure in knowing what 30 million people want to know?

Ben- Oh, no, that lost its lustre a few years ago. To be completely honest, when I went to the American Idol final this year I was really looking forward to their finale, I thought the American finale two years ago was exceptional. I thought their finale this year was anything but exceptional. I thought we had the opportunity to give Canadian viewers of both shows a finale that they deserved, and with the Top 10 that we had and more importantly with the team of producers and the creative people behind this show, I thought we gave Canadians an exceptional two hours of television. But I'll say this, we had an eight-and-a-half-minute music medley at one point tonight, and I'm pretty sure you cannot find anywhere on television today eight-and-a-half straight minutes of pure music. It doesn't exist anymore except on Canadian Idol.

Q- You said Canada got it right, Ben. Do you regret saying Canada got it wrong?

Ben- No, I absolutely don't, because I'll ask you the question: 'Was Greg Neufeld the worst singer that week?' Was he even close to being the worst singer that week, he was not, and in that case, in that instance they got it dead wrong that week. And also I'll stand by that. I didn't say he deserved to win the thing; I said he didn't deserve to go home that week.

Q- One of the other great things about your other jobs at e-talk is that you get to stay in touch with the winner as they progress throughout the year, so we have the 2006 champion standing next door, how can you sum up her career over the past year?

Ben- Well, I stood here last year and I said that she was the perfect Canadian. She was multi-lingual and she was this really, a consummate performer and proud of her heritage and proud of her roots and able to reach out beyond where she was from and to do it with style and with grace, and she has done that successfully over the course of the year. She's done it with enthusiasm and I've just spent the past 45 minutes with her and she hasn't changed one iota. I think she's as enthusiastic about the next year of her career as she was a year ago about this year of her career. Let's bring her out. Eva Avila, everybody.