The Runner Up Takes It All: Difference between revisions

* Spain's ''Operación Triunfo'', first edition. The winner was Rosa López, who went to [[Eurovision Song Contest]] and is still active in the industry. But runners ups Chenoa and David Bisbal are way more successful than her, and are the only ones known at the other side of the pond.

* A similar situation happened in the first edition of its Mexican simile ''La Academia'', where Yahir became the most successful singer despite ending up in fourth place.

** This one, at least, is easy to understand. Star Search, for some completely inexplicable reason, uses a single elimination format, meaning that aside from skewed voting blocks and unpredictable judges, an ''unlucky seeding'' can knock out a strong contender early.

* [[WWE]]'s ''[[Tough Enough]]'' reality show created a minor lower-midcard star for a couple of years in the form of Maven. Much more success was found by fourth season runner-up [[The Miz]] and third season co-winner [[John Morrison]] (a lone exception), who were later hired and ended up the top tag team in the company in early 2009.

** Season 4: Johnny Curtis hasn't even appeared until recently ([[Aborted Arc|nor did he get his guaranteed tag title shot]]), while runner up Brodus Clay appeared on Smackdown as [[Alberto Del Rio]]'s bodyguard, then took a dramatic [[Heel Face Turn]] as the Funkasaurus.

** Season 5: While the contest was effectively abandoned, Titus O'Neil and Darren Young ended up getting promoted with [[Smack Down]] contracts, leaving Derrick Bateman as the lone rookie and technically, the unofficial winner. [[Fridge Brilliance]] also applies as the prize would have been for the winner to compete in Season 6, {{spoiler|which looks to indeed be happening for Bateman.}}

** It's not the only example from the Song Contest - Mocedades' "Eres Tu" from 1973 and Cliff Richards' "Congratulations" from 1968 both finished second, yet became far more massive hits than the winners.

** Dancing Lasha Tumbai, the runner up song in 2007, outsold the winner Molitva. [[Curb Stomp Battle|By more than the double]].

* The most recent seasons of ''The Bachelor'' had an interesting take on this trope. Jason selected Melissa Rycroft as the winner over Molly Malaney in the Finale. But during the "after show", he dumped winner Melissa in favor of Molly. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] though, as Melissa ended up on ''Dancing With the Stars'', while Molly ended up with the "not as rich as he says he is, and willing to humiliate Melissa on national television, so how great can he be" Jason.

** Also James Max from the first season, who only made it as far as the interview week, but often pops up as a guest presenter on TV shows and has his own radio show with a pretty decent audience. For a while this also applied to Raef Bjayou from the fourth season, although he seems to have faded into obscurity more recently.

** Another example from the fourth season; Ian Stringer bombed out in the third week, and Sir Alan Sugar branded him "an absolute waste of space" and the worst candidate from that year's bunch. These days however he's a fairly well known sports reporter, and enjoys a higher profile than the vast majority of that year's candidates.

** Diversity have done pretty well for themselves, though... it's just that dance troupes don't really release albums or anything.

* [[wikipedia:Ninet Tayeb|Ninet Tayeb]] won the first season of Israel's equivalent of [[American Idol]]. Her most significant career move since then was her role as an [[Expy]] of herself in "Hashir Shelanu" ("Our Song"), a [[Soap Opera]] about music school. Two-odd seasons of this later she finally got to releasing an album, then went on tour to thundering, embarassed silence whenever she tried to have the audience join in the singing, for lack of familiarity with the words. Meanwhile the runner-up [[wikipedia:Shiri Maimon|Shiri Maimon]] released an album that went gold, performed a ballad in the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] ranking fourth and won the MTV Europe Awards for Best Israeli Act.

* Heather Morris was eliminated just before the top 20 of [[So You Think You Can Dance]]. She went on to dance for [[Beyonce Knowles]] in the Single Ladies tour and currently plays the role of the famously brainless Brittany in ''[[Glee]]''.

** Likewise with Amber Riley. She was rejected on [[American Idol]] (in fact, she didn't even get to appear on TV) and now she has probably gotten more fame and exposure than some Idol winners thanks to her role of Mercedes.

* [[Project Runway]] has had its fair share of runner-ups both breaking into the industry and generally being more well-known than the winners; the only winner, out of its eight-plus seasons, that has actually come through is Season 4's Christian Siriano (ironically, he's the youngest winner in the show's history). The most well-known players are probably Season 1's Austin Scarlett (fourth place) and Season 2's Santino Rice (third place); both have their own reality show currently airing on Lifetime, and have made a modest name for themselves.

* Shear Genius, Season 1: Tabatha Coffey was eliminated mid-late in the show; she now has her own reality show and owns a very high-end salon.

** Like a lot of other singing shows, the prize (a record deal with Simon Cowell's label) for coming first is more or less worthless, because almost everyone who gets into the finals will inevitably get the same deal if they get enough hype during the show, but without the massive pressure and expectations associated with coming first.

*** If anything, they stand a better chance. The actual contract you get when you win X Factor is somewhat notorious, so runners up actually have a shot at getting a better deal than the winner.

** On the American version, 3rd placer Chris Rene has to this point had those most success, due to his uber-catchy single "Young Homie"

* You may have seen Dave Holmes as the co-host of the FX Network's "DVD on TV". He was also the runner-up in [[MTV]]'s first "Wanna Be a VJ?" competition. The actual winner, Jesse Camp, pretty much disappeared shortly after his 15 minutes in the spotlight.

** Holmes was offered a job as an interviewer after the competition. He worked there for four years, while Camp has a show only for one contractually-obligated year.

* During the end of [[Cars]], Lightning McQueen places third in the final race. However, this was because he stopped to help his idol finish his final race. The winner looks like an ass, everyone loves McQueen.

* They gay-themed episodes of the MTV dating show ''Next'' reveal the problem with applying the standard reality/dating show formula to gays. At least once, the chosen contestant decided he'd rather date one of the other (losing) contestants instead of the designated bachelor. Ouch.

* On the Irish "Pop Idol", Nadine Coyle made it to the final but was disqualified for lying about her age. However, while the winners of that competition, "Six" had one dubious hit, Nadine went on to win another programme and participate in the far more successful "Girls Aloud"

* Averted for the most part by ''[[The Ultimate Fighter]]''. Former TUF winners Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, and Matt Serra have all gone on to become UFC champions, while other winners like Diego Sanchez, Michael Bisping, and Nate Diaz have become legitimate contenders, at some point, in their weight classes. Not to say that non-winners haven't done well, considering the success that guys like Josh Koscheck and Kenny Florian have had. It's not that surprising given the show's format, where the contestants directly compete against each other, so it's all the more likely the stronger, more talented fighter would end up winning.

** It also may have been planned: AGT producers may have been leery of having an 8-year-old girl headlining a show in Las Vegas.

** This pretty much happened to all the winners except for Terry Fator, who has his own Vegas show. Acts like Nuttin' But Stringz, Recylced Percussion, and Fighting Gravity have done better than the winners of their seasons.

* This trope is older than Reality TV. In 1986, [[Halle Berry]] was Miss Ohio in the Miss USA pageant, but came in second place for the main title. Obviously, she has since gone on to become an Oscar-winning actress.

* On a similar note, the winner of the inaugural Elite Model Management ''Look of the Year'' contest in 1983 was a 15-year-old called Lisa Hollenbeck. Among the losers that year were Cindy Crawford and Stephanie Seymour, who've probably gotten over their disappointment by now.