David Cook Reflects on ‘American Idol’ Success & His ‘The Price Is Right’ Dream

Martin Holmes October 13, 2025, 9:07 am

David Cook is reflecting on his American Idol victory in 2008 and its impact on his life, sharing who from the show he keeps in touch with and a special request he made involving The Price is Right.

Speaking with People 17 years after winning the hit competition show’s seventh season, Cook said his time on Idol was “worthwhile and fruitful,” noting, “I got a career out of it. It was extremely exciting, and all of it was very new.”

Cook has released three studio albums since winning Idol in 2008 and four EPs, with his latest, The Hero, dropping last month. His self-titled debut album was released on November 18, 2008, and has since been certified platinum by the RIAA.

The singer-songwriter admitted he wasn’t an avid watcher of Idol when he appeared on the show, stating, “My knowledge of the show was remedial at best.’ However, that lack of awareness “made everything pretty exciting and new.”

There was another show Cook was a big fan of, though, and that was The Price Is Right, which filmed on the same lot as Idol.

“I remember [when I made] the top five, jokingly saying, ‘Hey, if I somehow win, I want somebody to take me down to like the basement of the studios where I was taping, and I wanna spin The Price Is Right wheel.’ That’s all I wanted to do,” he told the outlet.

The producers delivered on Cook’s wish, taking him down to the TPIR studio to spin the wheel. “I landed on a dollar, oddly enough. That was maybe the luckiest day of my life,” he quipped.

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Cook also shared which of his fellow contestants he keeps in contact with, noting that the experience made it “impossible not to develop relationships off that.”

Season 7 also featured popular contestants such as runner-up David Archuleta, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Syesha Mercado, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, and more.

“I still talk to Arch every now and again. Not enough, but every now and again,” Cook shared. “I just talked to Carly Smithson not too long ago. Talked to Ramiele here and there, talked to Brooke. We had a good group. I think it’d be impossible to walk away from that and not have some new friends.”

He added, “It’s a unique fraternity to be a part of and something I’m really proud to be a part of. I don’t believe that there’s anything else like going through American Idol. To be a part of that particular group is pretty rad.”