Australian Idol: Former contestants Imogen Spendlove and Ripley Alexander talk about autism

Australian Idol favourites Ripley Alexander and Imogen Spendlove tell why they found the contest so tough before their brutal eliminations.

Australian Idol favourites Imogen Spendlove and Ripley Alexander, who were brutally booted from the show in the first eliminations, both chose to not to exploit their “backstory” and the fact they have autism to court votes.

It may be the first time reality singing contest producers haven’t forced contestants to reveal their story for ratings.

Alexander said he didn’t want to be treated any differently than the other contestants or for his autism to be treated as an “excuse” during the competition.

Ripley Alexander eliminated from 2024 Australian Idol top 12. Picture: Supplied / Seven

“It was tough to find the balance of being myself on TV because I’m typically a closed person and it’s not a very easy thing to really open yourself up on national television,” he said.

“I’ve got autism so it’s a little bit hard for me to constantly be on, it’s a difficulty, but it’s difficult for everyone on the show … I don’t really being treated differently, I don’t like it being treated as an excuse because I have autism.”

Spendlove, who was widely regarded as a potential winner of the 2024 contest, said she contemplated sharing her disability if she continued in the competition.

She said she started to feel burnt out during the lead-up to the first live show on Sunday.

Imogen Spendlove felt burnt out leading up to her final Idol performance. Picture: Supplied / Seven

“I never felt settled in that performance and I was getting really burnt out in the competition as I’m autistic as well, going through this whole thing,” she said.

“So I was getting overwhelmed coming to work every day, and the noise in the rooms and not really having downtime was a bit stressful.

“Watching the performance back, it wasn’t bad but you could see I felt quite unsettled.”

Both singers said they would use headphones or earplugs to help insulate them from the sensory overload of the reality television experience.

The judges and viewers were shocked by their elimination. It appears likely that voters assumed others were casting their ballots in favour of two of the most popular contestants.

About 1.7 million votes were cast with only a handful separating the bottom four, including T.J. Zimba and Ivana Ilic, from the top 10 who went through to next week’s sing-offs.

“When it aired that we got eliminated, the Idol socials blew up. It was kind of crazy to see that everyone was so devastated,” Spendlove said.

Alexander has become a global superstar on social media with his torch song reinvention of ABBA’s Mamma Mia not only scoring more than 3.3 million views on YouTube but inspiring an avalanche of TikTok covers of his cover.

And Spendlove got a shout out from country legend Shania Twain who commented “Gorgeous!” after her performance of From This Moment On at the top 21 show.