UPDATED with audio: American Idols Live: Archuleta wins the night

Monday, July 7, 2008 | 3:14 p.m.

In the spirit of the night, with all the on-the-scene, up-to-the-minute blog posts about the UFC and boxing matches dominating the Las Vegas Sun, it seems fitting to weigh in briefly on the night's other major event in Vegas: the "American Idols Live" concert at the Thomas and Mack Center.

The three-hour event was not a competition, and (blessedly) there was no troika of judges to proclaim "pitchiness," etc. But it appeared to this witness that the walkaway winner of the evening was 17-year-old David Archuleta. Sure, he was the runner-up on the actual show that spawned this concert and its 53-show tour (Vegas was stop #4). But Archuleta brought his A-game (or some other sports cliche) and proved he's on course to be a musical star in the long term.

More details on the day in a Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun, but here's my ranking of tonight's Top Ten on the strength of tonight's performances: #2: David Cook, #3: Carly Smithson, #4: Jason Castro, #5 Michael Johns, #6 Brooke White, #7 Chikezie Eze, #8: Syesha Mercado, #9 Kristy Lee Cook, #10: Ramiele Malubay.

I'll leave you with one quote from this afternoon's Idol press conference:

Carly Smithson: "I want a David Cook t-shirt!"