CREDIT: AP

Gosh. Things are awfully quiet here in “Idol” land this week, eh? I spoke with season two finalist Kimberley Locke a couple weeks ago and didn’t get a a huge amount of news out of her but she is co-hosting the Gospel Music Channel’s “Gospel Dream” show, which is basically “Idol” for gospel singers. (BET has a similar show called “Sunday Best”).

Like Matt Rogers (CBS’s “There Goes the Neighborhood”) and Kimberly Caldwell (TV Guide Channel), Locke is trying her hand at Seacrest-like hosting.

“I was very excited,” she said. “I’m just looking to expand my career into hosting and do more television. I was glad to be a part of it.” (The show has been pre-taped.)

She hopes the experience will lead down the road to her own talk show. “I need to start building a foundation to that,” she said. “It’s getting my feet wet in being in front of the camera hosting.” Ryan Seacrest, she said, “has inspired me.”

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Locke, who finished third in 2003 and had one big single after the show (”8th World Wonder”), said she grew up in church singing gospel. She thought the show was interesting because it defined gospel very broadly, allowing for both black gospel and what’s called “contemporary” gospel more commonly sung by others.

She said she has considered doing a gospel record but hasn’t committed to that. But she is leaning on more of a standards record. “My favorites include Judy Garland and Etta James and Diana Ross and Patti LaBelle. The classic singers,” she said. “Nowadays, the singing is lost in all the production. I want to do an album to allow my voice shine.”

She is currently sans record label (like that matters in this day and age.). “I’m still doing some research… I think the possibilities are out there. I just have to find out what works best for me.”

Locke co-hosted with Mike Kasem. Yes, that’s Casey Kasem’s son. “He looks like his dad,” she mused, “which was really weird and bizarre. I was a big Scooby Doo fan… Michael was really nice.” She also found judge Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child) “bursting with energy.”

She says the show, compared to “Idol,” is “not meanspirited. But they didn’t spare any criticism. They are not biting their tongues at all.”

Her take on “Idol” six years later: “American Idol will always be a part of my life, a great part of my life. I have no regrets about it. I have nothing bad to say about it. It has given me so many opportunities. The show is still going strong.”

She is still buds with Ruben Studdard and said she has gotten close to Diana DeGarmo.

As for her post “Celebrity Fit Club” life, she said she’s managed to keep her weight down. It helps she’s still dating “Fit Club” judge and fitness coach Harvey Walden. “I may even try to lose a few more pounds,” she said.

The show airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

-Not surprisingly, the “Idol” repeat of the Michael Jackson themed show Monday night only pulled in 4.2 million viewers. I get a sense most folks had had their fill of MJ by Monday anyway to see a repeat of a show from four months ago.

-I’m not making a big deal of a U.K. report that Simon Cowell could make as much as $144 million a year. He makes about $36 million now. I just don’t believe it. That seems excessive even given how much money Fox and Fremantle make on the show.