American Idol judges react to shocking Pia Toscano elimination

Apr, 07, 2011 | AUTHOR: Darren O; | Related : American Idol, Pia Toscano

American idol's Pia Toscano showed she could rock with Tina Turner's "River Deep Mountain High"

In arguably the most shocking American Idol elimination in the show’s history America voted off seeming front-runner Pia Toscano nearly guaranteeing yet another male winner for the show.

The live audience gasped but it was the judges who were most shocked and angered by the decision.

Jennifer Lopez (In tears): “I have no idea what just happened here. I’m shocked. I’m angry. I don’t even know what to say.”

Randy Jackson: “We’re all in shock, I’m gutted.”

Steven Tyler: “A mistake is one thing, but a lack of passion is unforgivable. They’re wrong.”

Pia refrained her stand out performance of The Pretenders “I’ll Stand By You” and broke down as the credits rolled and Ryan Seacrest begged for America to help. From Twitter reactions people are on fire with rage and are in turn pointing fingers back at the judges for having used their one save on Casey Abrams.

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Jenna

This was really unbelievable and an outrage. Pia was way too talented to go this early.She was my favorite after James. Both sing absolutely beautifully – I don’t get it.
JohnOpera

American Idol just lost half their viewship audience by discarding Pia! Man, that’s like sending Pavarotti home! You just don’t do a stupid thing like that. I and about 100 friends and family in my inner circle have vowed to stop watching AI after tonight. Without Pia this show is done! Finito! Crashed and burned! Over! And out! I’m not watchin’ it the rest of this season. AI producers, you are idiots!! I hope a bunch of you and your staff get fired off of AI!
- musiq genius
  
  i couldnt have said it better myself, excuse my language but i am f**king p!ssed they used that save on cacey
- diannemillan
  
  John I stand by you so true I will not watch it any more. This is just wrong
Matt

You said it .. Idol should move to the Disney channel where the teens, can watch, who should have been doing their homework tonite, voted off the best contestant to grace the Idol stage .. & for people that try to box her in as a balladeer .. what about the rest of them? .. from the gendre “slightly better than me singing in the shower” .. or “my cat screeching while I swing it around by its tail”
monte

idol has lost all credability as a singing contest. I have watched for the last time!
ADMarc

Theres no reason to continue watching AI…I am very disappointed.
- Andre LHeureux
  
  Shame on AI judges for their consistant lack of constructive evaluation.Because of that,the public can’t make rationnal decisions.The public is no talent specialist and the role of the judges is to frame and help public to make a wise decision based on professional judgements. The best contestant(Pia) by far since David Cook has been eliminated and the show will not be the same.I now don’t care who win or lose I don’t watch this show anymore ,I have better things to do,we all miss Simon…
  - Pam
    
    Andre, if you review all the performances and compare them, you might see that Pia may have been the best singer but not the best entertainer overall.
Eileen

The American public are at fault for this. They did not give her enough votes. Does that tell you something? They did not like her enough and neither did I, so let the other talented singers compete and stop badmouthing the show! It is actually the best season yet with a lot of great talent.
Cleverapple811

I know people are going to hate me for saying this but SHE WAS BORING!!!!! Her only talent was being able to sing ballads. She tried something different and failed horribly. Finally America got it right!
- Pam
  
  I don’t think she was boring, but she showed a lack of stage presence that some of the other contestants possess. She could have lasted another few weeks for sure. I do praise her flawless vocals though and hope she’ll work on her ability to command that stage before they go on tour!
Rick C

This is the reason I no longer watch “Dancing with the Stars”. Its just a popularity contest and has nothing to do with the talent of the performers. “SO you think you can dance” has a lot better format of choosing the contestants with the best talent. Idol has lost still another viewer.
http://starcasm.net groovalicious12

Pia is absolutely the best singer this season if not ever and her beauty is as amazing. The judges need more power in deciding who gets eliminated.
Ignace

I was devastated when the results were announced.What a shock, I can’t still beleive it. I am disgusted and no more watching American Idol. She was the next Celine Dion, she was the best of all times.
Tim

Casey’s save was necessary. Nobody could have dreamed that this would have happened (except the show’s producers, perhaps).

Anyway, it was pretty awful for Stefano, too — NOBODY offered him one single word of congratulations.
Pam

Pia may have been the best singer, but she lacked other qualities that make the best entertainer. Roll back the tapes and watch.
Jessica

For one I believe that pia shld still be there but if you dont vote than wat do u exspect it.is not the shows fault so gettin mad at them is stupid. There are still a lot of great singers people need to suck it up and vote for who they think is their next choice.
Taffy1970

The AI producers can save and eliminate who ever they want. There is no accountability for the American vote. Regardless of how the vote went, they can tell viewers anything. They could have saved Pia.
Maybe this was done on purpose to shake things up, I’m sure Pia has a contract by now. She’ll be fine.
US-First

Notice the two Italians (by last name at least) were the lowest voted on. Must be Americans don’t like Italians but like Italian women least of all. Maybe she got on offer too good to pass up and they let her go using the least calls ploy. We will see. Either way no need to feel sorry for her. She clearly will have a stellar carrier and won’t have to be an AI lackey since she got out before they got down to 8.
ANTH

WORST DECISION IVE EVER SEEN
ANTH

more like move this crap to the comedy channel
jackie

Just goes to prove that American Idol is nothing but a popularity contest! The judges are PROFESSIONALS and should choose who stays and who leaves. The average person calling in is either a young girl voting in for the ‘cute guy’ or someone listening to top-40 on the radio. This brings to light why the entire concept is pathetic.
Kriss

Pia was the standout, period!!! I love the new judges and being a Aerosmith fan having Stephen Tyler there only fuelled my excitement on watching American Idol for the first time!! But in all honestly I felt the judges have played a little part in Pia’s shock exit. They did not separate enough the difference in each contestants performance whether good or bad. For example if Simon was judging this season he would have torn to bits Haley’s version of ‘Fallin’ by Alicia Keys. That was pitiful!! And don’t get me started with Casey’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit” version, that alone should have sent him home! Plus the judges at times were sending mixed messages too. They would preach constantly about being consistent. Yet Casey, Haley, Paul & Stefano were all too ‘middle of the road’ for me. Yes they might have all had some good performance but they had some terrible cringe worth performances. Thats not being consistent. I’m a professional musician I know what I’m talking about!! Pia was consistent since the first note she sang on American Idol! She was raising the bar higher and leaving the rest behind. Her performances was infectious it made you stand up and listen. I couldn’t wait to hear what song she would do next!!!
Pam

She was definately the standout! I also agree, they used the save WAY to early knowing full well how talented Pia is. She may not have stage prescence yet, but that will come with experience given the chance! I can’t believe knowing this is a SINGING competition how the American public vote. I’m a Canadian who always watches AI and looked forward to seeing what song she would sing. For once this season, it was an acutal competition with the other talent but really, voting her off this early was ridiculous! There needs to be a new way of voting for sure. Guess that’s how the Taylor Hicks, Chris Allan won and look how popular they are today…..NOT! Pia’s up there with Carrie Underwood, Jordan Sparks, Chris Daughtry so I’d go and buy her CD for sure! She’ll do fine but this was the most unjust elimination ever! She was NEVER in the bottom 3 and always consistent in her performances, which obviously doesn’t seem to count with the voters…pretty sad!
http://www.benzoexodus.com Donna

This is all the judges fault. With their rainbow praises and Jennifer telling Pia to do something different than a ballad, well, that was jealousy as far as I’m concerned. Saving Casey? What was that all about? He has hardly taken his role on AI seriously and acted like a clown for the first 4 shows. For this they saved him. I, and a few of my friends, were happy when he was voted off. When they saved him we were very disappointed. They haven’t offered enough constructive criticism to the contestants and it seems there is not much critique but more praising and goo goo garbage. Simon was, at least, honest with the contestants. I’m sure he is cringing and I can see that AI is in the making of being a less than exciting show from here forward. I have watched it faithfully every year. In all honesty the talent is no better than it was in previous years. Red lips is terrible. She shouldn’t be there now. Who in their right mind would pick that girl over Pia? Pia’s talent is so far above the rest of the contestants. They aren’t even in the same league that Pia is in. I like a lot of them, yes, but Casey should have gone when it was his time.

Shame on the judges, especially Jennifer, for bearing down on Pia like she did. Like I said, I feel it was jealousy on the part of Jennifer. Maybe Jenn wishes she could sing that well. We all know she could never sing like Pia.

AI is done this year. Unless they come up with a big name to judge next year, and one who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, they are done. The judges are the boring ones, not the contestants.
- Avi
  
  you are so right Donna! The judges have been over praising the contestants for no apparent reason. It did not help the ratings of AI either-I am sure. Pia should be the winner this year but she’ll be fine, cause nobody can dismiss a real talent when it’s there.
  Simon Cowell-you are soooooooooooooo missed! I was counting on Randy to tell it as it is, because he’s a real bass player and a producer with some great ears, but even he has turned out to be M just another nice guy who would not say anything anless things are are getting “little pithchy”etc.