I might be in the minority here, but I was actually a bit shocked my Joe's audition, and thought he carried it VERY well with both the accent and the performance as a whole. I'm both a Southerner and a big fan of Waitress and though I've not seen Blake's performance, Joe was very much unlike Tanya B. and does have some talent for this I think.
Having said this, it is very unfair to trained theatre folks who have been working their way up the ladder for this, but at least he doesn't blatantly suck and can stick with it. I do think his singing sounds a bit like kermit but the acting was surprising to me.
Don't care for much else that he's done really and haven't watched him in a long time but it was in my suggestions and wanted to come see what others thought.