Runner-Ups Triumph

An interesting article from the Orlando Sentinel about reality TV's runner-ups and how they often find themselves more successful than the winners.

Triumph of the losers
We love winners, but sometimes a runner-up transforms defeat into fame, even fortune.
Kate Santich - Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 2, 2006

In fact, reality TV -- with its instant-celebrity formula -- has given renewed hope to runners-up everywhere. Ruben Studdard won American Idol's second season and went on to sell 1.8 million copies of his first album Soulful. But second-place finisher Clay Aiken has easily become the bigger name -- and success -- selling 2.7 million copies of his debut album, Measure of a Man, and headlining a national tour.