psychoticstate wrote:

I personally believe they wanted Taylor to win - - he was older, they probably thought he would appeal to a different audience.

Not true; a couple of weeks before Chris Daughtry was eliminated, Simon told Jay Leno he desperately wanted Chris to win, but was worried that America would put Taylor through instead. The reason, he said, was that Taylor didn't have broad commercial appeal and he honestly didn't know how they would market him.

They're not interested in the older audience; the ones who spend the money are the kids.