Below are a few excerpts from Brandon Rogers, given to TV writers during a conference call after he was voted out of American Idol:

Singing contest or popularity contest? "You know what, I don’t know if this is a singing contest or a popularity contest, or which one is more valid, but the factor of the matter is, it’s a contest. By whatever means people decide to vote, whether it’s on your voice, your looks, or whether they like you as a person, it has no bearing on the validity of the winner. It is what it is. We all knew this going into it. You just try to do your best on the show and hope that it works out for you, and hope that you can pick up some fans along the way that keep you going. I got all the way to our top 12, man, I’m pretty elated just to be there."

Did the back-up singer label hurt? "It very well may have, but on the same page, look at [Melinda Doolittle]. She’s a background singer, too, and she stepped up to the occasion. Honestly, like I said earlier, I didn’t choose songs that really allowed me to do that, like I think the judges and a lot of people thought that I was capable of doing, and that I think I was capable of doing. I didn’t do that, so that was a failure on my part. I don’t know if it worked against me or not. I think my picking the wrong songs worked far more against me than anything to do with my background singing."

Ruminating on roommates: "My roommate for the most part of the show, it had been Phil. We changed locations and it had become Chris Sligh ... You get really close. Phil and I have become close, and honestly, I had only been living with Sligh for a week, but I’ve been on the show with him for many weeks. So we’re all friends, and we’re all close, but it was just hard to see anybody go. I liken it to trying to pick your favorite sibling.

Honestly, inside the Idol bubble, as they call it, you’re sort of closed off from the outside world. You don’t get to see your family and you don’t get to see your friends, so these people become your family and your friends."

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.