The Runner Up Takes It All: Difference between revisions

{{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.

* 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.

* Speaking of the [[Eurovision Song Contest]], Gali Atari & Milk and Honey won in 1979, but outside of Israel, where Hallelujah's still really well-known, very few people know who they are. One of the losers, however? ''[[Dschinghis Khan]]''. Enough said, really.

** 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]].

* Saira Khan and especially Ruth Badger from the first two seasons of the British version of ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]''. The winners of the first two seasons, Tim Campbell and Michelle Dewberry are still doing pretty well for themselves, but the runners-up from those years are definitely higher-profile in the media.

** 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.

** 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.

* Seemingly a reoccurring pattern among [[VH-1]]'s "Celebreality" dating shows as New York, runner up of ''[[Flavor of Love]]'', would get [[I Love New York|her own dating show]], where the runners up, "Real" and "Chance" would later get their own as well.

* 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.

** In a way it happens to straight girls as well; a few times they bond with each other and decide the guy isn't worth it

** 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.

* Rachel Tucker did not in fact win the Andrew Lloyd Webber talent search show 'I'd Do anything', however unlike the winner who has virtually disappeared, Rachel went from strength to strength playing Meat in [[We Will Rock You]], and is now on stage as Elphaba in ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''.

* [[CMT]]'s ''Can You Duet'' (which formed new musical duos) zig-zagged this trope. Season 1 winners Caitlin & Will broke up after only one single, while third-placers Joey + Rory released three albums for Vanguard Records and have a massive fanbase despite being a [[No-Hit Wonder]] (possibly because Rory Lee Feek is a prominent songwriter as well). Season 2 winners Steel Magnolia had a moderately successful debut album, although fifth-place O'Shea already had a following and some awards in their native Australia.

* ''Nashville Star'' zig-zags this trope. While season 4 winner Chris Young has become a mid-level star after a false start, the only other winner to even see Top 40 more than once was Buddy Jewell (whose debut album produced two #3 hits and was certified gold before a [[Sophomore Slump]] from which he never recovered). In comparison, [[Miranda Lambert]] (third place in Season 1) has far outdone everyone else on the show commercially, even if it took until her third album to get a big hit.

** 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.

* In the case of [[Lindsey Stirling]], it's a case of "Loser Takes It All". No one remembers the winner of the 2010 season of ''[[America's Got Talent]]'', but Stirling, who was kicked off the show in an early round and told she wasn't good enough to perform her unique combination of dance and violin, is now an acclaimed star with several international tours, gold records and a massive following to her name.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Reality TV Tropes]]

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