Regular readers know I love me some underdogs. Danny Noriega and Josiah Leming on American Idol, Fanny Pak on America's Best Dance Crew 2, Sisley on The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll...for some reason, I always seem to root for the less obvious contender. I don't do this to be contrary. I don't do it to generate "controversy." And I certainly don't do it because I enjoy getting a jillion posts on my message boards telling me I'm fulla shiz and Yahoo! should fire me.
What can I say? I guess I'm just one of those types that prefers the road less traveled. Or the contestant less voted.
Case in point: This just-completed sixth season of Nashville Star. As pleased as I was when Melissa Lawson won last night, I was still really rooting for the dark horse, Shawn Mayer. And I also must admit, from episode one I had soft spots in my heart for Third Town (the Vegas cutups who were actually eleventh-hour understudies), Charley Jenkins (the one guy whom the public never even had the chance to vote for, as the judges cut him in week one), and Coffey (who actually made it all the way to fourth place, despite the judges' constant accusations that he wasn't REALLY country and belonged on AmIdol instead).
So when I attended the Nashville Star finale taping yesterday, it was one big reject reunion, because all the contestants were there to participate in the opening linedance number. And while I fled the scene and hid in a bathroom stall like a coward whenever I was about to awkwardly run into, say, Justin Gaston, Laura & Sophie, or Alyson Gilbert (just in case they'd read some of the not-so-flattering critiques I'd written about them), I was more than happy to chat again with Coffey, Charley, and Third Town's Jeff, Tony, and Little Tony.
Below are my on-site underdog interviews, first with the always amusing Third Town guys, then a joint interview with Charley and Coffey (which is just as amusing, when they joke about not being recognized by the show's staffers for very different reasons--but then turns downright touching, when Charley leaps to Coffey's defense):
So, is it too late for a recount?