This is an interesting article.. but why didn't Ruben make the list? Not that I liked Clay at all.. but Ruben has not done very well since his win.. oh well... I hope you all enjoy the list.. and I am sure most of us agree 100% with the #1 choice... (but at least they can redeem themselves this season when Our David wins it all!)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21038571/


5Top: Least deserving reality TV winners


Taylor Hicks
“American Idol 5”
The history of reality TV is littered with winners who are unlikable and even hateable. But their wins indicate that they did something right, since they defeated their opponents, after all. Still, sometimes they leave more-deserving candidates in their wake. That’s frequently the case with “American Idol,” as best exemplified by its fifth season winner, Taylor Hicks. He received the most votes and won, but since then, his record sales have been solid but unimpressive, showing that fans have responded more to his competition’s music (Chris Daughtry’s first album actually set records). Even judge Simon Cowell admitted that Taylor won only because the show became “a popularity contest.”


Flo Pesenti
“The Amazing Race 3”
Flo Pesenti won a half million dollars on “The Amazing Race 3” for one reason: her teammate Zach Behr, who essentially dragged her across the finish line. While the race has certainly seen plenty of contestants who are obnoxious to their teammate and to the world, Flo was more than that, although she did plenty of yelling. In one now-famous moment, she tried to quit the show, but her incredibly patient teammate Zach persuaded her to keep going. Zach deserved $1 million just for putting up with her, and she deserved nothing.


Mike Malin
“Big Brother 7”
“Big Brother 7’s” relatively sedate all-star season concluded with Mike “Boogie” Malin taking home the $500,000 prize. But really, it was two evicted players, Mike’s friend Will Kirby and Will’s showmance Janelle, who dominated throughout the game and just dragged Mike along for the ride. However, after Janelle smartly evicted Will, and then was later evicted by Mike, only two weak players were left: Mike and Erika. The game’s structure tends to reward the weak and the unlikable, and that was certainly true of its winning all-star.


Dorothy
“The Mole 2”
“The Mole,” hosted by Anderson Cooper, is one of the best competition-based reality series ever produced, in part because the show eliminated people based upon their knowledge of which cast member was secretly working for the producers. There was interpersonal drama, but it wasn’t directly responsible for getting anyone kicked off the show. But the winner of “The Mole 2,” Dorothy, did not win because of her knowledge about the mole’s identity. She narrowly avoided being “executed” several times only because others got more questions wrong than she did, and during the finale, she beat her opponent Heather by a single question. Worse, it was Heather who told Dorothy who the mole was: Bill. Thus, Heather correctly figured out the mole’s identity, and should have won. Then again, she also should have kept her mouth shut.


Kelly Monaco
“Dancing with the Stars”
The first celebrity dancer to win “Dancing with the Stars” did not, alas, deserve to win. Instead, Kelly Monaco won because of a weird scoring system. John O’Hurley, her competition, did better throughout the competition than Kelly except during one week, although she defeated him in the finals. The stupid scoring system that combined the audience and the judges’ scores left Kelly as the winner. Audience outcry — some claimed that because she was on an ABC soap, the show was fixed — led ABC to schedule a “dance-off,” which John O’Hurley won because it was based entirely on audience votes.

I can't stand Taylor Hicks he sooo didn't deserve to win! I think people voted cuz of his preformences how much energy he had and how fun he was but on a cd he just dosen't work. Were with Daughtry his preformence and his vocal was amaving he works with both preformence and on cd. I think David Cook is the same he workes with both and he will sell tons of cds were IMO Archie will not. Cookie is much more grownded and not green at all were Archie is really green and nervese all the time. Cookie has cofidence and drive he nows what he wants and he gose for it. He will win!!!

Kelly Monaco
“Dancing with the Stars”
The first celebrity dancer to win “Dancing with the Stars” did not, alas, deserve to win. Instead, Kelly Monaco won because of a weird scoring system. John O’Hurley, her competition, did better throughout the competition than Kelly except during one week, although she defeated him in the finals. The stupid scoring system that combined the audience and the judges’ scores left Kelly as the winner. Audience outcry — some claimed that because she was on an ABC soap, the show was fixed — led ABC to schedule a “dance-off,” which John O’Hurley won because it was based entirely on audience votes.




Kelly Monaco - FTMFW!

To answer the original question, I think Ruben was not on the list b/c he actually is very talented. There is more than just talent that goes into high album sales. I think the final 2 that season was right on(although there is a case to be made for Kim Locke,) and the vote was incredibly close. It's not necessarily a question of if he deserved to win, but how much? IMO, it's not enough to have made this list.

And, I say this as a Clay Aiken fan. Watching AIRewind 2, I saw again Ruben performing (I think) Just the Way You Are on Billy Joel night, and I actually had tears in my eyes. He so should have gone the Luther Vandross route. His voice and delivery were incredibly sexy on that song.

He deserves so much better than what he has gotten.

IMO, Taylor is not nearly good enough to have won his season. It should have been Chris D. all the way. I stopped watching that season after he got eliminated, and almost stopped watching altogether.

I have to give Taylor his due, though. As a recording artist, I don't think he is as good as he is a performing artist. I got a kick out of his performances. Some people just don't translate their ability to a recording and are just better as live performers.

And yes, I agree that Chris Daughtry certainly left before his time. It was too bad, but he certainly hasn't been hurt by it.

When you think about it, not all that many idol winners have been huge successes. Kelly and Carrie have done extremely well. I can't wait to see how well David does. I think he has a great chance of doing very, very well.

Jeannine

Ok, throw as many tomatoes as you want at me, but I actually voted a little bit for Taylor Hicks on the finale night. I couldn't stand Kat McPhee, I couldn't even watch her performances. The only reason I chose to vote for Taylor was because I was a HUGE Chris Daughtry fan and when he got eliminated, I chose Taylor to give my votes to. Like someone else said, I didn't enjoy his album all that much, but I think he's a great live performer. Looking back now, I still wouldn't change my votes because if I had a choice between Taylor and Kat...I'd still pick Taylor.

David is the first person that I've gotten behind that has actually won. In season 1, for some reason I liked Justin Guarini, but I think it was because I was 14 and I just thought he was cute. I was like how the Archie fans are now. And then in season 2, I loved Clay, and he didn't win. It just kept going like that until this past Wednesday night when the curse was broken and David actually won

~Steph

David is the first time that my early pick has won as well. It was incredibly gratifying, somehow.

I and an older guy I work with are both regular viewers, and we always discuss the performances at work on Wednesday mornings.

But, I don't work on Thursday, and he doesn't work Friday or Saturday, so I haven't seen him since David won.

We were both behind him, so I can't wait to see him on Monday and celebrate!

I hail from Birmingham, AL, hometown to Ruben, Bo, and Taylor.

When Ruben was on American Idol, it was a huge, huge deal. I was a Clay fan and remember the days of Clay vs. Ruben quite well, and I was one of those people who bought Clay's single the day it came out to prove a point.

When Bo was on the show, I never watched him. I think he appealed to a lot of people around here but the level of intensity that existed two years before just wasn't there.

I actually went to high school with Taylor Hicks. I think when he won people here were proud of him but were a little puzzled exactly what had happened. On MSNBC a few weeks ago there was a an article about how Cookie should win this season because Daughtry lost out on his because America picked "the fun guy" instead of someone who could actually be a success. I don't think anyone around here was really expecting anything from him. He was a gray-haired soul singer who knew how to work a crowd but had a very odd performing style. I think the reaction when he came back on AI last year around here was almost of embarrassment. I don't think it's a coincidence that AI5 has produced so many moderately successful runner-ups. Not only do you have Daughtry and Elliott, but Kellie is doing well and I think Bucky is doing okay who I think was in that season.

I do have to say that Taylor is the huge elephant in the room and every time Cookie does something that even slightly reminds me of him I want to cringe. It's the major reason I'm wary of the stigma Cookie may have when older fans are concerned. (Though my perception of things was that Taylor's fans seemed to be much, much older than Cookie's, even at the upper end of the scale. Maybe I'm wrong.)I'm pretty wary of Cookie going outright and naming his fanbase on TRL because Taylor did exactly that on the show to hammer home how much he was "winning", and from what I saw of it, it was everything that was wrong with Taylor, the cheesiness and arrogance that annoyed a lot of people. Taylor's the first thing haters tend to bring up and I just want Cookie to have as little as possible in common with the man.

huh? when did DC name his fanbase on TRL? i think he'll be on TRL later this week...and we already know what we call ourselve and I think he does, too. And what's wrong with naming your fanbase.
I think it's mean to call people "undeserving" winners. Hicks was fun to watch even though no one that season (or any season) ever motivated me to vote the way I did for Cook.