2011 Salute of Champions: #15-11

#15: D'Angelo Castro & Amanda Carbajales ("Live To Dance")

These kids were the last dancers to successfully make it through the NYC auditions at the end of the two-hour premiere of this short-lived series. After making the Top 18, in the first semi-final week, they got three stars & were the viewers' choice to qualify for the finals, which they ended up winning to split the $500K.

#14: Javier Colon ("The Voice")

Like D'Angelo & Amanda, we first saw a champ like Javier towards the end of the two-hour prmiere; he was the next-to-last one to advance to the second phase at that time (the last was Beverly McClellan) & chose to be on Adam Levine's team. On May 18th, he won his Battle Round against Angela Wolff. A month later on June 21st, the home viewers were on his side after his Jun. 14th performances & he advanced to his semi-final battle against Casey Weston that night. The following evening (the 22nd), he defeated Casey by a landslide, 138-62, to qualify for the finals. His original song on the finale was "Stitch By Stitch" & he sang "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson w/ Adam. Speaking of "Landslide", that was the last song he sang w/ Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks just before he was declared "The Voice" by less than 2% over Dia Frampton.

#13: Christopher Short ("Jeopardy!")

He was one of the luckiest champs they ever had. In fact, his first win came on April Fool's Day for $21,600, which also marked the third straight year no returning champ successfully defended their title on the week of April Fool's Day. His second & third games both ended in Final Jeopardy! Triple Stumpers, but he wagered as little as possible to stay the titleholder. On Apr. 6th, he did considerably better by winning $27,600 but only picked up $2,400 on his fifth win. The FJ! TS struck again on his sixth night (which was the fourth during his time), but that one proved to be his most profitable one w/ $26,353; his interesting title reign finally ended on Apr. 11th courtesy of Tim Kresowik & he finished regular play w/ $96,752. He busted out in FJ! on Nov. 8th during his Tournament of Champions first-round game against Justin Sausville & Mark Runsvold and he left w/ $101,752.

#12: Scotty McCreery ("American Idol")

Would you believe that his initial appearance was when he was the first aired singer to make it through the Milwaukee auditions on my birthday (Jan. 26)? At the end of March, the week after Casey Abrams was saved, Scotty performed the Elton John song "Country Comfort" while he was in the dreaded first performance slot on the 30th, but he still avoided the bottom three the next night. The other time he sang first on a performance show was LeAnn Rimes' rendition of "Swingin'" on April 20th. As it turned out, he was never in the bottom three the whole season, which was key in him becoming the next "Idol" over Lauren Alaina.

#11: Justin Sausville ("Jeopardy!")

Justin ended Season 27 of "J!" as a two-day champ on Jul. 29th w/ $58,401 heading into the start of Season 28 on Sept. 19th. Heading into FJ! on the 19th, he was in third place, but was the only one to come up w/ the right response to retain w/ $18,399. Justin broke the $100K mark on the 20th when he won another $24,401. On his fifth game, he was leading $16K over Patrick Sweaney's $11,800 & Beth Hermann's $4,400. The FJ! answer from OSCAR Winners wanted the most recent father & daughter to win acting OSCARS. Even though Justin wrote the right query of "Who are Jon Voigt & Angelina Jolie?", he didn't bet anything in order to lock Beth out & it paid off as Patrick lost it all w/ Henry & Jane Fonda. He ran into a FJ! TS on the 22nd, but he still won for the sixth & final time in a row w/ $16,799. After leaving on the 23rd w/ $136K, he was locked out by Tom Nissley in a ToC semi-final on Nov. 9th, making his final "J!" earnings $146K.