I have seen a lot of people say that Arkansas’ Kris Allen was the Underdog and Darkhorse of American Idol’s season 8. Let’s look at this and see if this is true or not.

You probably saw some quick glances of Kris Allen singing with the White Chocolate group, but they were really quick and fleeting. Mostly it was to highlight another singer in the group who later on was given a backstory on the show.

When Kris first appeared on the show was the night of the voting to pick the contestants for the show. Kris had no backstory when he was to perform that evening. The show had already done several of the other contestants of that evening’s backstory so everyone was watching for them to win.

Kris appeared and was thrown into the mix. A friend said it reminded him of those old gladiator movies where the star gladiators were sent in with people who nobody knew or cared about. They have a name for them on American Idol. They are called “cannon fodder”. They are contestants with no backstories and TV time who are thrown in with people the producers of the show have already picked to advance on to the next round. Many of the backstories that were done by the producers of American Idol are feel good or sob stories that help the show with ratings, but also help those people create a early fanbase to vote for. One person who fall early on was a guy named Ricky Braddy, who many believe outsang Danny Gokey and the other male contestant, but because he had no backstory the TV viewers had no connection with him. That gave him a big disadvantage coming into the competition. Sadly Ricky Braddy went down the first night because of this.

Ricky Braddy will always be remembered as the guy who should’ve been in the competition. He got Ricky-Braddyed – A contestant who was set up to be fodder.

The second night came up and the persons who had the backstories done failed to meet the expections of the judges and producers. Two people that evening who had never had any exposure came out and performed greatly. One was Allison Iraheta and the other was a guy who no one had heard about named Kris Allen. I voted like mad for both of them.

I then went to Dial Idol and that site showed that Allison had made it, but Kris Allen didn’t. He was beaten out by the guy with the backstory who sang a song horribly. I was furious. It appeared that Kris was Ricky Braddyed and was cheated out of his spot in the top 3 for group 2.

The next evening while watching the show I saw the persons with the Idol backstories drop like flies then it came to Kris and Megan. At that date Dial Idol had always been correct in predicting who was going home and it said that Kris Allen was a goner, a feat that has continued for Dial Idol all this season when it came to Kris, so I was awaiting for the hammer to fall when suddenly Ryan Seacrest said that Kris had made it through. Of all the reactions on the show this season Kris’s has been the most genuine when it came to making it through.

At that moment I knew that Kris Allen was my pick and that the Underdogs sometimes do beat the odds that are stacked against them. That the Underdog sometimes have their day in the sun.

The next day all the news outlets were praising Adam and Allison, but were like “Kris who?”.

So I did a little research and it appears that Allison had won a Spanish TV Idol like show and that Adam was a seasoned stage and theater actor and singer for years. I was surprised. When I saw the video of Kris on American Idol he said that his performance that first evening of “Man in the Mirror” was the first time he had ever sang without his guitar. I was expecting to find more professional experience of Kris, but there basically wasn’t any. Kris was his local church’s worship leader and he and some buddies had did a self-produced cd. Anyone today can do a ‘self-produced’ cd.

Here was this guy who never had a backstory on American Idol and was not a professional singing on Idol and I was now voting for him. I thought I must be as crazy as he is. I thought “Well he will last about a couple of weeks and hopefully he will make it to be on the tour”. I went to the main American Idol board and Kris had like 2,000 posts in his folder, meanwhile the other contestants with backstories had 30,000 and the real competition hadn’t even started. There were only a handful of posters in his folder and most of the time it was “so where is everybody?”, lol

Entertainment Weekly rankings with top 6, but no mention of Kris Allen.

Then an article appeared in Entertainment Weekly with their rankings. All of those who had made it to the top seven were on rankings with photos, all except my Underdog Kris Allen. Oh, how times have changed.

The first night of the competition Kris came out with his guitar and sang an uptempo Michael Jackson song “Do You Remember the Time” and the judges gave him luke warm praise. That night it was revealed that Kris was a newelywed which Simon said was a killer.

I would troll the main American Idol fan board and no one was talking about Kris they were all talking about the contestants who had backstories and were semi-pros. I would mention Kris and I was blasted with comments like “he won’t last”, “you are only voting for him because he is cute”, and the non-famous “he is so boooring”…lol. I thought “yeah, boring compared to the professionals you are backing”, but I kept it civil. They even attacked him because of side mouth singing. That is like attacking someone because they had bushy eyebrows.

Not one media outlet picked up Kris’s performance. The next week was Country Week and for the second time in his life he sang without his guitar and sang “Too Make You Feel My Love”. He sat on stool and sang it with such feeling and emotion I thought for sure now everyone would start talking about him in a good way. Once again the judges remarks were tepid and the media was so busy with everyone else that Kris flew under the wire. Simon even said that Kris should be more conceited.

Kris Allen is a shy, quit humble person that Simon wanted to be conceited.

Then it was the week that everyone noticed him. He finally got the pimp spot on the show. That is the last spot on the show which is the best one. He pulled out the keyboards, yes the keyboards and sang “Ain’t No Sunshine”. For the 1st time people were starting to notice Kris. Not only could he play the guitar, but he could also play the keyboards. I was happy for Kris and was excited more people started to recognize his talent.

Then only a week after that Kris had to pick a song from his birth year and of all the song he picked “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”. He played the guitar again and I don’t know why but he sang in the mosh pit or what I call the “mosh pit of death”. The week before Matt Giruad had sung in the mosh pit and the judges were brutal. The judges can’t see the contestant in front of them and they cannot see the performance. It wasn’t that bad, but everyone acted like it was the worst thing in the world, that is because they were making sure their favorite advanced.

The critics were brutal because even though they say they don’t listen to Simon, they really do. They somehow forgot that the week before Kris had given one of the best performances by any contestant this season that wasn’t Adam with his rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Once again Kris was in the bottom of Dial Idol and I sweated that night. Dail Idol had successfully predicted everyone’s depart so far and now it showed Kris in the bottom. But just like before the Darkhorse Underdog beat Dial Idol for the 2nd time. The only person to it many times this season. After that Dial idol had lost most credibilty by most media and people. That is because Kris had beaten Dial Idol.

Kris Allen’s sing off that was never shown and ended up on the director’s cutting floor. Kris’s audition, sing off and backstory was not included on Idol.

Then Kris did something that had everyone talking, while everyone picked old standards and standbys during Movie Week Kris picked a song that many people had never heard from a small Indie film called Once. He picked a song called “Falling Slowly”. He started off a little shaky, but when he got going it was one of the best songs and performances this season. The song reached out and grabbed a whole audience that never gave Kris an 2nd thought. That week Kris was only getting 2 judges critiques and unlucky for him one was a really bad one. But by then Kris has shown that he was more than just a fluke. He was the real deal.

The media had said that Kris was a goner because Disco week was next and that would certainly leave Kris behind and maybe voted off the show. Not only did Kris take on Disco Week, but he completely changed an old Disco song and created a totally new song from an old one. Showing that not only was a Kris a singer and musician, but he was also a talented artist. People started to take notice and suddenly the underdog – darkhorse with the shy quiet demeanor was now being seen as the front runner.

That next week Simon was being interviewed. He said that the persons who should be in the finals should be Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert, and not one mention of Kris.

Rat pack week came along and Kris was the first to sing. Out of the seven times that Kris has performed on Idol he has only sang once at the end. Most of the time Kris has sang at the beginning part of the show. Most people remember the performances towards the end or the last one. Meaning most people would not remember Kris’s. Even though three of the judges loved Kris’s performance, the media somehow only picked up Simon’s comments and ran with that.

The next evening when the bottom 3 were called it was Matt, Kris and Adam. The media went on a major blitz. Adam had never been in the bottom 3, and so on and so on. Yet the media never mentioned that Kris had also never been in the bottom 3 until that same day. So once again the underdog was passed over, after all he had gotten this far.

So now we were down the final four and once again Kris faced another Underdog moment when the media questioned ex-Idol producer Nigel and asked him to talk about the four remaining contests. He talked about 3 of them, and not once did he mention Kris, not once. How can you mention three of four contestants and forget one. It is not like Nigel was talking about ten people.

It was Rock Week, a genre that Kris and Danny would both have problems with since Adam and Allison were the Rockers of the show (which many people seem to forget). Somehow Kris is paired up with Danny. You would think the show would pair the Rockers with the non-Rockers to balance it out? Kris already proved he could sing with Allison when they did  a Journey group number. So Adam goes first and since his thing is Rock he does great, like the professional he already is. Then Kris and Danny are ready for their duet. Kris looks happy and then the duet starts. Kris turns and sings towards Danny and Danny looks straight ahead. Danny turns a duet into a sing-off and at the end Kris is bothered. Because they were supposed to do a duet. Then to to top it off Simon blasts Kris.

Simon Cowell wants Kris to be more conceited and can’t wait to get out of his seat to have a cigarette.

THEN right after that Kris had to go backstage and dress quickly because the producers had put his song right directly after the sing-off, oh I mean duet. Kris is not a Hard Rocker and tries his best and it is actually good. Kris is the only contestant left who can play an instrument and plays the electric guitar. Something some of the judges forgot. Then they blast him for not being a HARD ROCKER. Later on Danny sings Dream On and at the end it is a big mess. Instead of giving him the same critique as Kris they gave Danny an A+++ for effort because it is not his genre…uh…excuse me you didn’t give Kris the same treatment. Hard Rock is not Kris’s genre also, but they didn’t give him an “A+++ for effort”.

Danny was clearly the worse of the evening, but once again Kris the underdog is on the bottom of Dial Idol and everyone is writing Kris’s epitah. Would the underdog once again beat the odds. It has happened so many times before, but would this be week. Every media outlet and betting had Kris has out of the game.

So the next night Ryan is calling the first to be safe. Ryan gets to Kris and suddenly tells Kris he is safe. In one of the most genuine moments of the season Kris puts his hands over his mouth and shows the emotion of the first evening he made it through. Sadly that evening Allison is out and then there is outrage. Many people blame Kris, but yet those of us who like Kris’s type of soft rock are not hard rock listeners, so how is it Kris’s fault? Just the week before Allison was safe and the other Rocker Adam was in the bottom 3, and the week before that Rocker Allison was in the bottom 3 and Adam was safe. So anyone with a brain could see that this week the Rocker vote was solidly behind Adam after almost losing him the week before. The Rockers wrote that all over the boards – No More Vote Splitting. That meant that the Rockers were not going to split their votes between the two remaining Rock singers. So why blame Kris? He was certainly not getting the Hard Rock votes.

But now the Underdog – Darkhouse has made it to the top 3. The saga of Kris Allen continues.

Kris Allen – dorky laugh.

During Disco week Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta once again blew me away, but my favorite performance was Kris Allen. I like his style of singing and performing on AI. I also like that my favorites are all in the top 5. They are Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta.

I loved the cheesy Disco dance number that the contestants did that was cheorographed by Paula Abdul herself. It was so great and fun to watch.  It was one of the best group numbers even though it was lip-synched.

Of course my favorite was Kris Allen. He is such a cool guy. But before they did their dance the group posed for some photo taking and here is Kris Allen in his Disco duds wearing sunglasses. Kris Allen practices with group.

Kris Workin’ Hard for His Money

Kris reads his fan mail. Kris Allen chilling below and waiting for the show to start.