Former Reality Show Contestants

JD is looking good!!!

Hey I heard GB was paid 10,000 for that bingo and stein mart gig. do y'all believe that? That's a good chunk of change.

You mean $10,000 each??!! Man, that kind of money to sing for 20 mins. among the coat racks?? Crazy

I would love to make $10,000 for a day or 12.

Regardless...I still find him repugnant. I had thought to write a note saying I could sort of identify..but really, I can't.

Oh, I'm sure that's why he does things that are this embarrassing.

The funny thing - the best work he's done in awhile is that absolutely delightful concert at Bend. Because of the rules there, nobody who did not attend will ever hear or see it, and he probably did not get paid $10,000 for it. So the best was neither the most expensive nor the most visible.

Frazz - you said you could maybe identify, but you can't? Maybe you can identify with his very specific situation - the situation of having to do cheesy gigs to pay the rent - but not his behavior, persona, or values in general?

Interesting CD sales info on former Idols' latest CDs

Both Con and Bo have sold 21,000

Mandisa has sold 57,000

Bucky 295,000 (I haven't bought it, but I heard it and it has some really great songs)

Carmen - 2,100 (poor baby)

Kat - 320,000

Taylor - 697,000

Ruben - 235,000

Paris - 20,000

Kim Locke - 20,000

Kelly - 698,000

Fanty - 492,000

Elliott - 441,000 (no sales info on Elliott's Xmas CD since it is a Target Exclusive and Target is not reporting his sales to Soundscan)

All this info comes from Ken Barnes and I borrowed it from Roseviolet at The Clack House

Con has sold as much as Bo?

Luca wrote:

Con has sold as much as Bo?

Yep. It is surprising isn't it. But, I am more surprised that Mandisa has sold more than twice what Bo and Con have. I think Bo's could pick up with some radio play. You would think Country music stations might give his southern rock some play

Bo's lack of success really puzzles me. I wonder what's up with that.

And whatever happened to Taylor?

frazzle wrote:

Bo's lack of success really puzzles me. I wonder what's up with that.

And whatever happened to Taylor?

I think with all the health problems Bo suffered right off the bat, slowed the whole process of getting his name out there, and the first CD was good, it just wasn't Bo!

Yeah, what did happen with Taylor?

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Con sold as much as Bo?

Don't forget - it's Con's first CD, Bo's second. But both are indie now. This REALLY illustrates how hard it is without a label to back you. Mandisa is gospel, so she has a particular, specialist genre, and she wrote a book, too.

It just isn't that easy to get ahead as a person who does not win Idol... and as for Taylor...?

I think that was sabotage. They did NOT like him. He did NOT play nice with the brass.

Bo's video for "Witness" made it to number one on the VH-1 Top 20 Countdown this week and the host said it was available exclusively at Wal-Mart's. Hopefully people who heard and liked the song will be motivated to go and buy the CD.

Bo's CD has had almost no promotion which I'm sure has hurt sales somewhat.

They don't have Walmarts anywhere near the center of Hollywood. The closest one is in a completely black neighborhood. Somehow I doubt black folks are hungering for Southern rock. And I doubt they have Walmarts in NYC. maybe that is Bo's problem: he really seems to personally aim at doing Southern Rock for city folks, and not so much for Country fans. He is more mainstream rock than country His Jimmy Hendrix Voodoo Child was the highlight of the LA Idol Tour show I saw. A Target deal would have been much better if he had to do an exclusive. A Virgin Records or Amazon deal would be better than both, I think.

Abrahammy, I agree that Taylor must have pissed off the Simons sufficiently for them to actively sabotage him.

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It just isn't that easy to get ahead as a person who does not win Idol... and as for Taylor...?

My take is this , I don't think it matters one iota if you win or not. IMO the days of a Carrie. Kelly , Clay , & Chris are over. There will be no more. The market is overly satuarated with former AI contestants. PPl really do forget once the show is over they are on to the next group. I do feel bad for Bo though. He is super talented. But sadly I don't think that matters.

I think you are mostly right Aerwin. I do think if someone truly amazing shows up on AI they might have a go at big success. But I think for the most part AI is now just an entertaining show and most contestants will end up back to their regular lives when the tour is over.

I can say for me, I really enjoyed Blake and Jordin last season, but I know I will not be buying their CDs and I sure don't follow their "careers". Sadly, I turned out to be that way for Taylor too. I just loved him during AI, but after that I found I really lost interest. I got his CD for my mom, who still loves it and him, but I never did get one for myself.

I love Kelly C, but didn't get her last CD because none of the songs on it really thrilled me enough to buy it. I got Carrie's first CD because there were some killer songs on it and she wailed on them. So far what samples I have heard from her new CD don't do much for me. I did ask my one cousin to get me Daughtry for Xmas. That damn song Home is just too good, and I really like a lot of the other songs too. When he doesn't yell he has a truly beautiful voice IMO.

Clay - well I am his bitch! For life! I will buy anything the guy puts out

So yeah, mostly now AI is just a fun TV show and not really so much about finding the next "Superstar" and for me I won't be buying even the "Superstars'" CDs if I don't love a lot of the songs.

I understand that Taylor Hicks tried to organize the other Idols to protest for a better contract, and that's one of the reasons he fell into bad graces. However, I am one who actually attempted to support him after his win, and I bought his CD - it's dreck. The tragic thing is that I've also got the CD he put out by himself before AI called Under the Radar, and I like that one a lot.

In Season Two, they pushed a boring singer over the one real star they found that year, so the less popular person was handed a title he did not earn. The public rejected that result.

In Season Five, the producers rejected the public vote and promoted one of their also-rans at the expense of their winner. That actually worked; they got their way.

But the result? The title has been tarnished. Winning is now unimportant. Since I will bet dollars to donuts that Blake's going to outperform Jordin, this is going to get underlined again and we will have the third underperforming Idol in six tries. The most memorable person of the season was Sanjaya, and he's not really quite ready yet musically to take on the world.

Winning now no longer has anything to do with succeeding. They've shot themselves in the foot.

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Clay - well I am his bitch! For life! I will buy anything the guy puts out

Yeah, I think he's one of the AI alums who is still going to be selling a healthy number of records ten or fifteen years from now. At the very worst, he will pop up every Christmas with a new tour and maybe another special (please let it be funnier this time) some day.

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I do feel bad for Bo though. He is super talented. But sadly I don't think that matters.

I think his illness really hurt his chances.

I predict Taylor and Bo will both slip under the radar, if you don't count what has happenned already as just that. They will continue to be able to make a living playing small clubs, but I think that will be about it. Taylor does have one heck of a personality though. I could see him hosting a music variety show or something. He seriously should go to Nashville, or should have right after the show. Now it may seem he is selling out or getting desperate. Just like someone else we know who tried to go Nashville as a last ditch effort to make it.

I agree with Abrahammy totally and completely. No matter how many times Simon stomps his feet and throws himself to the ground kicking and screaming, it does not mean anything to win AI. I have found they consistently pick the "safe" (read: boring) person to win. Then the people with the real singing chops take the world by storm.

I still find Carrie safe and boring, but she's country and therefore she has an entirely different audience.

I think Taylor will go into obscurity. His win was based solely on his quirkiness. He was a novelty. I think Bo, if he gets the right backing, could pull himself out of this because he's really talented and an excellent performer. He also needs to not be sick.

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Jordin's debut sets a new Idol winner sales low
The full Idol sales report will come later today, but in case you didn't see it, Jordin's album enters the Billboard chart next week at No. 10 after selling 119,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's both the lowest sales tally and the worst chart start for any Idol winner, and comes despite a strong start for her single Tattoo (No. 26 on the national radio airplay audience chart and top 15 on the top 40 chart, not to mention 372,000 downloads so far). Not a great day for the Idol record-selling franchise.

Oh well it's what I expected would happen.

Me too I feel for her. She seems like such a sweetie and she is just a kid. All these reports (I've seen others) about her being the worst seller etc. has to hurt and feel like such a let down. I thought I might buy her CD when I heard Tattoo because I really enjoy the song and her voice. But I was not blown away by most of the other songs.

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Jordin's debut sets a new Idol winner sales low

Yep. I was afraid that was going to happen. So they will have two low-selling winners in a row. I think... this franchise has begun the slow slide to oblivion.

Well, I think the ratings for the show will stay high for several more years. I think people really enjoy the show. I think huge CD sellers will be few and far between.

Badger or Abrahammy - do you guys know who Kier at The Clack House is? I was in chat for the concert and both last night and tonight Kier said Hi to me. I always just lurk. I thought she was just being friendly and then she said "Firecracker, you are a Constantine fan right?" I told her I used to me. I assume she knows me from GS, but I don't recognize the name. Any ideas? I'm glad she said Hi because I actually ended up posting a bit in Chat! They are all so funny!!

I am bringing this musing on AIR2 over from the Clay thread because it does not relate directly to him, but to the process in general. He reminded us that of the hundred thousand people who try out for AI each year, about 200 get a ticket to Hollywood. Of those 200, only 24 ever even get to sing for America. So the judges and producers have utter and complete control of the eliminations from 100,000 all the way down to 24.

A few questions:

1. Why are the people who get chosen for the top 24 often so awful? Why was I sitting on my couch sulking at the end of the Final 12 round for the boys last year?
2. Why did they advance Sanjaya all the way to the top 12 boys and then treat him like he'd been committing deliberate acts of vandalism when he sang like the ordinary, untrained amateur high school kid he was?
3. If they are letting people through for any reason other than actual singing prowess, why do they get so pissed off when the viewers also take into consideration something other than singing prowess?
4. If they want to have complete control of the results all the way through, why do they have us vote? Do they not understand that this means they are allowing opinions other than their own to have sway in the progress of the contest? Do they understand that this means the audience will not always agree with them, and may indeed be trying to tell them they are looking for the wrong thing?
4. How did these past people make the cut: Corey Clark, Chris Richardson, Leah LaBelle, John Peter Lewis, Ace Young, Jesus and Noel Roman, Camile Valesquez yougettheidea?

I think it's because they're also looking for good television.

Agreed. I think to a very large degree, the viewers are doing the same thing. Which means the folks who run AI are hypocrites.