FOX’s two biggest shows, Glee and American Idol have a lot more in common than singing. The contestants and judges for Idol season 10 all seem to look or act like characters from Glee, so here are our picks for which characters most closely resemble the Idol stars.


#17 Casey Abrams is Blaine

Casey is generally beloved, just like Blaine, but he also doesn’t understand boundaries. While Blaine’s tone-deafness when it comes to what is appropriate showed up in his GAP Attack, Casey’s was with wild, out-there performances like his terrifying Nirvana attempt.


#16 Naima Adedapo is Mike Chang

Naima used wicked cool dance moves to cover up the fact that her voice wasn’t as powerful as some of the other girls, and all Mike Chang does is dance even though he’s in a singing group.


#15 Lauren Alaina is Quinn

Just like Quinn’s wildly shifting hormones during her pregnancy, Lauren is an emotional seesaw on Idol, crying more than anyone else on elimination nights and giving performances that bounce from great to terrible.


#14 James Durbin is Puck

The resident rock star of American Idol, James’ image is exactly like that of McKinley’s bad-ass, Puck. But underneath the rocker exterior, they both have softer, more sensitive sides.


#13 Stefano Lnagone is Sam

Stefano is young, cute, and when he sings, his mouth opens like a python unhinging its jaw, just like our favorite “Trouty Mouth” from Glee.


#12 Jacob Lusk is Mercedes

Jacob is a total diva with a voice to match, and every time he sings with his loud, booming voice, he busts your windows out your car, just like Mercedes.


#11 Ashthon Jones is Sunshine Corazon

Ashthon showed up in just one episode from the Top 13, tried to compete with Pia for the token diva spot and then vanished, just like the transfer student who competed with Rachel at the start of Glee season 2.


#10 Thia Magia is Tina

A shy little girl who never fully lived up to her potential and lacked the flash or sizzle of everyone around her, Thia was like early Tina, back when she pretended to have a stutter.


#9 Scotty McCreery is Finn

A bland, relatable everyman who loves his family, Scotty is a baseball-playing singer while Finn is an equally bland football-playing singer. They also both possess a high cheesiness factor and tend to look off into the distance instead of at the camera.


#8 Paul McDonald is Artie

Paul has his own style and his own way of moving, and he always stays to true to who he is. Artie also sticks with what he knows, only in his case, its R&B instead of quirky indie folk.


#7 Haley Reinhart is Brittany

Much like Birttany, Haley seems kind of aloof, but she has also gotten a lot better the more we’ve seen of her and she’s turned into the show’s resident fashion icon, just like Brittany, who went from a tiny role in season 1 to a cultural phenomenon in season 2.


#6 Karen Rodriguez is Santana

I actually though Karen had a great and intriguing voice, but all anyone cared about was the fact that she would sometimes sing in Spanish. Similarly, Santana actually has one of the better voices on Glee, but all anybody cared about was the fact that she sometimes hooked up with girls.


#5 Pia Toscano is Rachel

The token diva, everything she sings is brilliant, if not a bit dull because she has a consistent excellence and always sings ballads. That sentence could accurately describe either one of these women.


#4 Ryan Seacrest is Will Schuester

Frosted tips? Check. Thinks he’s more important to the show than he actually is? Check. Does everything in his power to make it all about him instead of letting the singers shine on their own? Check and double check.


#3 Randy Jackson is Principal Figgins

With all the other original judges gone, it’s Randy’s job to moderate disputes and keep everything calm, just like a high school principal.


#2 Jennifer Lopez is Holly Holiday

J.Lo means well, but her advice is mostly useless and generic, like she’s reading from a self-help book or fortune cookies. Holly does the same thing, and like J.Lo, she leads a rather extraordinary, unrelatable life, but tries to talk to everyone as if they’re the same.


#1 Steven Tyler is Sue Sylvester

Steve speaks in nonsensical tangents and is often scary due to his unpredictably wild nature, exactly like the Cheerios coach. If you put a megaphone in his hands, he could do some real damage.

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.