The Runner Up Takes It All: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:you have won second prize in a beauty contest 2516.png|link=Monopoly|frame|You've never even ''heard'' of the first place guy.]]

 

When the person who comes second or worse in a [[Reality Show]] gets more out of it than the winner, be it in post-show popularity, sales, endorsement cash, or simply not looking as much as a jackass on national television.

 

Compare [[Second Place Is for Winners]], [[Award Snub]].

{{examples}}

* Gareth Gates from ''Pop Idol'', at least to begin with. Not so much several years down the line when Will Young was still fairly successfully releasing material and Gareth was finishing fourth in ''Dancing On Ice''.

* Clay Aiken from ''[[American Idol]]''. A lot of people actually forget that he was the runner-up.

* For a while, ''[[Canadian Idol]]'' Season 5 winner Brian Melo had the best career of the singers that season, if only because his winner's single hit #11 on the Canadian Hot 100. Four years later, third-placer Carly Rae Jepsen releases the single "Call Me Maybe," which has so far topped over ten national charts, hit #2 in the United States, and become a full-fledged [[Memetic Mutation|meme]].

** Three years earlier, Jacob Hoggard places third behind Kalan Porter and Theresa Sokyrka. Jacob's band, Hedley, has since gone on to chart more singles and albums than any other acts associated with ''[[Canadian Idol]].'' They even cracked the US Modern Rock charts once.

 

{{reflist}}