James Durbin, Chris Daughtry Comparisons

Even though Ryan Seacrest reminded everyone to vote on May 11th, with this warning –“This is the week Daughtry went home! Don’t let your favorite down, America” — no one really expected history to repeat itself with the elimination of rocker, James Durbin. On the contrary, Durbin was expected to face off against country singer, Scotty McCreery and win.

But there really aren’t that many comparisons between Season 5, when Chris Daughtry was eliminated and Season 10. One thing that many people thought hurt Daughtry was his cockiness and arrogant attitude. Check it out — even at the elimination when most contestants have at least a twinge of doubt, he seriously looked like he thought Katharine McPhee was going home. James, on the other hand, looked like he knew it was him and like he was about to cry.

In Season 5, Daughtry was in the Bottom 2 with a girl, Katharine McPhee. The Top 3 ended up being Katharine, Elliott Yamin and Taylor Hicks so it was 2 guys against one girl and Hicks won.

Now we have two girls, Haley Reinhart and Lauren Alaina, and one boy, Scotty. Presumably, Scotty just had his first time in the Bottom Two even though we didn’t hear Ryan Seacrest officially say that. We didn’t hear him say he was announcing the results in random order either.

Another comparison is that James and Chris both had kids. It is often said America wants its idols unattached and childless. The third runner up in Season 9, Casey James was divorced but had no kids.

James Durbin appeared on FOX News this morning to talk about how he feels now: “I feel like I had a great week this week …,” he said, “It just happened … I have no remorse. I’m not angry. I’m a little sad. I’m not disappointed in myself, I’m not disappointed in my fans or anything like that. I have the best fans in the world and they got me to this point so I can’t help but be grateful.” (you knows omitted).

James said his favorite moment on the show was probably meeting Hulk Hogan. “Definitely. … I’m a huge wrestling fan.”

He also said he gets so excited about the upcoming American Idol tour, he can hardly speak. As to what we can expect from James Durbin in the future, he said: “It’s definitely, definitely, definitely going to be rock. I would never sing rock the whole time on the show and go make a pop/electronica album. That’s not me.” He also said he hopes he’ll get to do some Dio and Guns ‘N Roses on the tour.

There’s one more comparison to Chris Daughtry that everyone hopes does happen to James. Daughtry went on to outsell all of the Season 5 Top 3.