American Idol eliminated Ben Briley during Thursday night's live results show on Fox, determining the thirteenth season's Top 10 finalists and the singers who will be a part of Idol's summer tour this year.
 
Ben, a 24-year-old from Gallatin, TN, became the third finalist sent home from American Idol's thirteenth season after he received the fewest home viewer votes cast following Wednesday night's performance show, which featured the Top 11 finalists performing songs from the cinema, paying a tribute to Hollywood. He tried to show a different side of his country self by singing "Bennie and the Jets."

ADVERTISEMENT

Idol judges Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban decided against using their one "The Judges' Save" of the season on him after he sang for survival. Ben landed in the bottom three alongside Majesty Rose and Sam Woolf.

During a Friday conference call with reporters, Ben talked to Reality TV World about why he wasn't surprised to have landed in the bottom three and why he disagrees so much with the negative criticism Harry gave him this week. Below is what he had to say.

Reality TV World: You told Ryan Seacrest last night you weren't surprised to be in the bottom three because of your song choice. Could you elaborate on what was going through your mind, like did you just have a feeling you didn't connect to the audience? And also, when Ryan revealed the votes in real-time during Wednesday's show, you were at the bottom then too, so I didn't know if that worried you at all?

Ben Briley: No, the vote thing during the show, that doesn't really affect any of us. Because when you think about it, when people vote in, they have more time to vote in for the people that went first than they do the people that went last. And that was pretty much right after [I sang]. So that stuff doesn't really bother us. I know that a lot of the contestants were -- we don't really pay attention to any of that.

But it kind of set in for me after the night was over because everyone did such an amazing job Wednesday night, and mine was definitely one of the weaker performances. I don't think it was the weakest, but it was definitely one of the weaker ones.

I knew I'd be in the bottom three, but I was a little bit surprised to go home, mainly because I wasn't ready to go home. I had a lot of plans about what I wanted to do. But that's all here nor there, and I'm going to go back home and figure out where I'm going to take my career from here.

Reality TV World: Harry seemed to ease up on everybody in his criticism Wednesday night except for you. (Laughs) He said you sing with this throaty sound that resembles something out of a play or a character of some sort. What was your reaction when you heard that? And do you understand where he's coming from or do you feel like that's just the natural sound of your voice?

Ben Briley: No, that's how I sound in every song. And, you know, I got criticized for doing that song ["Bennie and the Jets"] and not making it my own, but I will argue heavily on that fact because I would disagree and say that I did make it my own.

I don't sing differently in any song that I would sing. I don't play any differently. I can only play what I know and sing what I know. So that throaty sound is just how my voice is, you know? It's my sound.

Also during the call, Ben talked to reporters about his Idol experience -- including why he feels it's unfair his performance got "shot down" by the judges although he doesn't let their comments affect him.

Were you surprised to be the first boy eliminated from the competition?

Ben Briley: That was definitely surprising. I did not expect to go home this soon and I chalked it up to that song choice, so I'm pretty sure that's the reason. I wanted to stick around as long as I possibly could, but everything happens for a reason, and so that's something that happened for a reason. It couldn't have happened at a better time because I was getting really homesick.

How did you feel about the judges' critique of your performance? Were you surprised you didn't get points for attempting something creative? They criticized you for stepping out of the box.

Ben Briley: Yeah, that did kind of sting a little bit because the whole purpose was to show someone -- to show them that I am a little different and I wanted to show that.

You know, to one contestant they'll say, "You're consistent but we need you to change something up. We need you to change a little bit." And then they'll say to somebody else, "You need to stay in your lane," or, "You don't need to venture out."

But when somebody finally does take a risk and takes a big step forward in trying to be different and just showing a different side, it gets shot down on national television.

The judges seemed especially hard on you in particular, both this week and last week. They seem less critical of some of the other finalists, who -- in my opinion -- had worse performances than you but got soft-pedaled criticism. Did you notice that? How do you feel about that?

Ben Briley: Well I definitely did notice it and I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to pretend to have a reason for that. Maybe they just didn't like me as much as they thought they did. I guess that would be the best answer, but I definitely did notice that and I don't understand why.

They've always been nice to me outside of the show, but you know, that was something I never really quite, quite got. But I don't really let it bother me, because at the end of the day, it was America who certainly got confused and I think it was because of the judges' comments.

They just kind of threw me under the bus and it really kind of confused people that way, and [the judges'] comments didn't help. But I don't know what their beef was with me in the past two, three weeks, but I can assure you it does not affect me at all. I can assure you that.

You're going to miss out on the monetary value and experience in performing as a part of Idol's summer tour. Does that add insult to injury when it comes to your elimination? And last year, they ended up picking 11 people to go on the tour, was there any talk of that again?

Ben Briley: I haven't heard of any talk but I would like to hear some of that talk! That would be nice. But no, I have not heard of any talks of going out on tour yet. I'm sure if they did, I would've heard something by now. But yeah, that part does sting a little bit, but the good thing is, I won't be away from my wife for a [large] amount of time again. That is something I was worried about.

After you sang for "The Judges' Save," how long after Keith started talking did you know what was going to happen?

Ben Briley: I kind of already knew and it was kind of based on their comments over the past week. I knew that if I got eliminated, they weren't going to save me, because they just had a chip on their shoulder or something and they really didn't want to use that. But I kind of knew right off the bat they weren't going to use it.

Please check back with Reality TV World soon for more.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS