A shocked Will was joined on stage by the final 50 contestants from earlier in the Pop Idol series as he closed the show with his version of Westlife’s Evergreen. The song – along with a new track Anything Is Possible, penned by 90s chart star Cathy Dennis – will be released as a double A-side by Will in a couple of weeks. The politics graduate now picks up a recording contract with BMG and a management deal with Simon Fuller, one of the brains behind the programme and the man who masterminded success for The Spice Girls and S Club 7.

Hosts Ant and Dec revealed the winner at 10.30pm. A record number of votes were cast and the Geordie duo explained how the lead between the two changed several times during the evening. The sheer number of callers had threatened to crash the BT network. The company – which had 28,000 dedicated lines for the voting – was forced to limit the number of people who got through to save a meltdown on the system. A spokeswoman said: "This was a national problem and not specific to any region. We had to put call gapping on to limit the number of calls that got through so callers would just get the engaged tone. We had to do it to protect the network."

But it seems there are no losers on Pop Idol. The four judges – Cowell, Capital Radio DJ Neil Fox, pop svengali Pete Waterman and Nicki Chapman – were so impressed by both contestants that Gareth has also been handed a record deal.The teenager, who beat a stammer to appear in the series, is expected to release his first single a few weeks after Will’s record hits the shops. Saturday’s final rounded off a week of campaigning by the pair which saw them travel around the country in their own “battle bus” drumming up support and doing media interviews.