There's the 56-date American Idols Live tour. There's all the extra publicity that goes with winning America's most popular talent contest. There's all the flying back and forth between tour stops to recording studios. And, of course, there's all the work on a debut album that needs to be done in a hurry and rushed into stores before Thanksgiving.

"I don't know if it's because I'm almost 30 or what, but I'm so glad I'm sitting down somewhere and that sometimes I don't know what to do," Doolittle says.

"I'm so excited about Jordin winning and there are so many great things happening for her. . . . At the same time, there are so many different contestants, and we're equally excited about things that we're working on."

For years now, many Idol runners-up have talked about being OK about not winning the crown. But this season, with all the attention that rained down on singer Sanjaya Malakar, who finished seventh, and the Oscar win of previous seventh-place finisher Jennifer Hudson, it seems as if the TV-ratings juggernaut has turned a corner.

Not to get all Paula Abdul about it, but, at this point, aren't all the American Idol finalists winners? Isn't chatting with Ryan Seacrest and performing for 20 million or so folks for a few weeks enough to launch a career?

Fifth-season finalist Mandisa thinks so. The singer from Antioch, Tenn., is currently topping the Christian/gospel charts with her debut album, True Beauty (Sparrow/EMI), and her single, "Only the World," was No. 1 for five weeks.

"I left the show and I had a record deal, a book deal and a modeling contract," Mandisa says. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' I came in ninth place. You definitely don't have to win to be successful."

Doolittle says the American Idols Live tour - where she performs everything from a Motown medley with LaKisha Jones to "Proud Mary" with Malakar to "A Natural Woman" by herself - confirms Idol as a launching pad for all the finalists.

"I didn't know what to expect going from city to city," she says. "Each city has its favorites, but they have all been so incredibly supportive. There's no way to fathom how far this show reaches. We can go to a venue and all have fans and that's amazing."