Will any of the judges ever have the balls to say “You know what, when you finish outside the Top 3, chances are we’re never going to hear from you ever again.
Will a judge ever say that instead of giving these kids false hope?
These kids have a far better chance of being heard from again as a result of their Idol experience than folks who never made the show. Jennifer Hudson came in 7th, Constantine Maroulis (Tony nomination) came in 6th, Mandisa (two Grammy nominations) came in 9th.
What these kids get is entree into the business. They get recruited for Broadway shows, the songwriters among them get to use their Idol cache to meet people who can help them in every strata of the biz.
They can't call be stars; there isn't room for all of them. They can use Idol as their career launching pad. The talented ones do. Chris Sligh came in 10th and wrote a song for Rascal Flatts. Trenyce came in 5th and had a Grammy nomination and was on Broadway. There are many, many Idol alumni who are doing musical theater. It's a job in show business. Nice work if you can get it!
“Will any of the judges ever have the balls to say You know what, when you finish outside the Top 3, chances are were never going to hear from you ever again.”
A lot of the season winners don’t make it that big either. And some of the non winners do very well. They are all so different. If their niche is strong, those people will grab them up. I think jacob would be perfect for broadway.
What can happen at the end of a season is that a boring kid can end up against an off-putting kid, and The boring one might win. Like lee dewyze up against a dreadlock-wearing leftist who alienated middle America. Bower sox is possibly doing better than he is.