Life after the show · 3 min read ·

Danny Noriega went out in Idol's Top 16, then finished second on Drag Race

Danny Noriega finished second on RuPaul's Drag Race. Kellie Pickler won Dancing with the Stars, and others competed on Fear Factor and The Masked Singer.

Danny Noriega

Danny Noriega

Photo: DVSROSS · CC BY 2.0 · Photo source.

Danny Noriega was eliminated in the Top 16 on season 7 of American Idol and was runner-up on season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2014. Other contestants competed on Dancing with the Stars, The Celebrity Apprentice and Celebrity Big Brother, and on The Masked Singer, The Biggest Loser and Fear Factor.

Kellie Pickler won Dancing with the Stars; Normani finished third

Kellie Pickler finished sixth on American Idol season 5 and won season 16 of Dancing with the Stars with Derek Hough in May 2013. Normani Kordei, put into the five-piece group that became Fifth Harmony in July 2012, finished in third place on season 24 with Valentin Chmerkovskiy in 2017. Lauren Alaina, the runner-up on American Idol season 10, competed on season 28 with partner Gleb Savchenko in 2019 and finished fourth.

Kellie Pickler

Photo: goaliej54 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Photo source.

Danny Noriega and Todrick Hall appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race

Danny Noriega was one of 10 contestants on season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars in 2016 and appeared as a guest in the season 11 premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2019.

Todrick Hall was eliminated in the Top 16 on American Idol season 9. He was a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race in an episode aired in April 2016, a full-time judge on All Stars 2 later in 2016, and a recurring guest judge in season 9 in 2017. In February 2022, Hall reached the final two of season 3 of Celebrity Big Brother and lost the jury vote to Miesha Tate, 7 to 1. Stacy Francis finished in tenth place on The X Factor season 1 and finished in 11th place on Celebrity Big Brother 19 in the United Kingdom in January 2017.

Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard competed together on The Masked Singer

Ruben Studdard won American Idol season 2, and Clay Aiken finished as runner-up. In 2012, Aiken finished as runner-up on the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice, raising $361,500 for the National Inclusion Project. Studdard competed on the fifteenth season of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, whose season finale aired in February 2014. In 2024, Aiken and Studdard competed together as the costumed duo "Beets" on season 11 of The Masked Singer and were eliminated in the Group B finals.

Clay Aiken

Photo: Judy Butler (mystuff1) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Photo source.

Chris Daughtry and Todrick Hall finished second on The Masked Singer

Chris Daughtry was eliminated in fourth place on American Idol season 5. In December 2019, he finished as runner-up on the second season of The Masked Singer, competing in a Rottweiler costume. Todrick Hall competed as Bull on season 6 and finished second to Jewel in the finale in December 2021.

In 2026, American Idol season 11 winner Phillip Phillips competed as Pugcasso on season 14 of The Masked Singer and finished as runner-up. Normani competed as Crane on season 14 and finished in fourth place.

Chris Daughtry

Photo: Staff Sgt. Shane Ellis · Public domain · Photo source.

Carmen Rasmusen finished second on NBC’s Fear Factor in 2006

Carmen Rasmusen was eliminated in sixth place on American Idol season 2 and finished second in a three-episode series of NBC’s Fear Factor in June 2006. Erin Willett was eliminated in the Top 8 on The Voice season 2 and competed on season 17 of The Biggest Loser in the fall of 2015.

Carmen Rasmusen Herbert

Photo: Jane T. of North Carolina (JD Fan at English Wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Photo source.

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