SEACREST: Congratulations to Taylor Hicks, the new American idol.

TAYLOR HICKS, WINNER OF "AMERICAN IDOL" FIFTH SEASON: Feeling great.

SEACREST: Has it sunk in yet, Taylor?

HICKS: I've been on a press tour, we both have, for about 48 hours now and, yes, I mean slowly as things start slowing down I start realizing it and it's pretty amazing stuff.

SEACREST: And, Kat (ph), you talk about the bubble that all of you live in during the series. How do you feel now being the runner- up, which is a huge accomplishment?

KATHARINE MCPHEE, RUNNER-UP "AMERICAN IDOL" SEASON FIVE: A huge accomplishment. I feel fantastic. Yesterday was a little weird. First of all, I only had about 45 minutes of sleep.

JACKSON: Wow!

MCPHEE: Between the finale and...

SEACREST: Is that right, 45 minutes of sleep?

MCPHEE: Forty-five minutes of sleep between the finale and when we started our press very early in the morning. And I just -- it was weird because my day was over at 2:30 yesterday. I know Taylor's was a little bit longer. But I was like, all right, well I guess I'll just sleep. It was just weird, you know.

JACKSON: Par for the course.

MCPHEE: The bubble has now officially been popped so the world is at our fingertips.

SEACREST: Well, Randy, how would you now looking back on the season assess what these two have accomplished?

JACKSON: I just want to say congratulations to both you guys. I mean you guys are definitely two of my favorites. And, I think, you know, at the beginning of the season, you know, we see all these kids, Ryan. You're out on the road with us and you really never know. But I must say we're really happy because he was so different. We'd never seen anything like him. And she, I don't know if she knows this, she was really different for us too, reason being we've never had a great contestant from L.A.

SEACREST: Yes.

JACKSON: This is where we live. Oh, my god, California, come on and we were like shocked.

SEACREST: You know it's interesting because you come from different backgrounds, different parts of the U.S., Taylor from a smaller town in Alabama. By the way, Alabama, lots of idols coming out of Bama.

HICKS: Yes, it's...

SEACREST: (INAUDIBLE).

HICKS: Yes.

SEACREST: (INAUDIBLE).

JACKSON: Ham and the ham is putting it down.

HICKS: Interesting, you know.

SEACREST: Of course, Sherman Oaks, a part of Los Angeles.

MCPHEE: Yes.

SEACREST: Do you think that that was a plus or a minus, a pro or a con being from a big city on "American Idol" Kat?

MCPHEE: I think it might have definitely played against me a little bit. I mean I don't want to go into any negative because, look it, I mean I got this far and obviously people were voting for me. But, you know, it's just different coming from especially not only, I mean it would be different with like Chicago or Boston but L.A., you know, this is like where everybody comes to become famous and I was born here, so it's just different.

HICKS: Well, you know what, you're famous now.

JACKSON: Absolutely, that's right. And you know, listen, it was special for us though with saying that we still every season didn't find anybody great from L.A. And you know there's somebody great here and when you showed up we couldn't believe it though. We couldn't believe it. We couldn't. Dude, I'm serious.

MCPHEE: Oh, thanks Randy.

SEACREST: I know for a fact the judges when they would see Los Angeles on the audition schedule they would say, "Oh, we're not going to find" -- everybody's jaded.

MCPHEE: Really?

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Because we haven't been to New York in years.

SEACREST: You actually didn't want to go there.

JACKSON: Yes, well we hadn't been to New York in a couple years, Ryan's hometown Atlanta we hadn't been in a couple years just because the big cities started giving us kind of more of a little bit of a jaded vibe, you know.

MCPHEE: Wow.

JACKSON: But it's just amazing to me. That's why I don't know if you remember me asking you "Dud, where you been?" Like what?

MCPHEE: Yes, I remember that.

SEACREST: And what's the answer?

MCPHEE: Oh, gosh.

SEACREST: Where were you hiding?

MCPHEE: Where have I been hiding? I've been like in the town, so crazy. I just -- I've been, you know, auditioning like every other girl in L.A.

SEACREST: Apparently we're having some problems with her microphone with Kat's mike.

MCPHEE: Oh.

SEACREST: You can -- we'll try and fix that in the break in just a second.

MCPHEE: OK.

SEACREST: Now, Taylor, in that moment that we saw you are the winner of "American Idol." A beat before I announced your name what was going through your mind"

HICKS: Don't fall down. Don't let your legs or your knees buckle. And, then you when you announced it, it was great.

SEACREST: And the moments after when you were performing could you even -- is it just too much to take in sensory overload?

HICKS: Yes, it's overwhelming, you know, and I wanted to thank the band and all the production staff and everybody behind the scenes that really makes this phenomenon work.