Talent Shows... Is The Runner Up Always Best?

02 June 2009

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As we saw Susan Boyle rather unceremoniously awarded second place in Saturday’s Britain’s Got Talent, we started to wonder whether or not ‘the best’ artists usually end up in second place.

Susan Boyle was without a doubt one of the best performers in the Saturday show, but due to her explosive media coverage and ‘meltdowns’ she had to settle for second place in favour of dance group Diversity.

But it’s not just BGT that has seen people come second and be destined for greater things than the eventual winner, I mean, take American Idol’s David Archuleta for instance, as well as

G4 the series one runners up have had a whopping three albums, with their first reaching number one and going twice platinum and their second, G4 and Friends selling over 400, 000 copies.

Rhydian Roberts, who was the runner-up in season four also went on to score a platinum record with his self-titled debut which spent 16 weeks on the chart, more than his rival Leon Jackson, who actually sold less copies of his debut than Rhydian, and has since been dropped from his record label.

Journey South and Andy Abraham from series two have also had pretty illustrious careers since leaving the show, and of course, who can forget Same Difference, who came third in series four, and have been performing their bubble-gum pop for kiddies all over the UK ever since.

The same goes for the USA’s version of the show, American Idol, which, to be fair, has produced some incredible talent, such as Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks and Carrie Underwood.

But as Kris Allen took the winners crown of the latest season over the incredible Adam Lambert last month, the question; “Did the right person really win?“ once again reared it’s big ugly head.

I mean, Kris was lovely and sweet, but Adam just had, well, that X Factor about him, a star quality that Kris didn’t have, and as well look back so have many of the other American Idol runners up such as David Archuleta, Clay Aiken and Bo Bice.

So, is it true that the TV companies ‘fix’ the phone lines so that the underdog always wins and Simon Cowell gets to manage both acts… or is there something completely wrong with the voting public… or, is it just me?

Let us know what you think!

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison