14 DAY TRIAL // No one saw this coming, yet it couldn’t have happened without American Idol fans from the US, who voted to keep their favorite hopeful on the show. At last night’s AI results show, judges were left gutted by American’s decision.
As the video below will show, the bottom two contestants were Pia Toscano and Stefano Langone and, while even Stefano seemed to have made his peace with knowing he would be the one to go, America decided differently.
To the shock of the judges and of Stefano himself, viewers voted for Pia to go.
She didn’t seem to realize it was her who would leave next in the first few seconds, but it soon started to dawn on her – and it was all there in her face, for the world to see.
Even more visible than that was the shock of the judges, all three of which would have probably bet big money that Stefano would be the next to leave the show.
Jennifer Lopez, for one, could barely fight back her tears as she admitted “I don’t know what just happened here.”
Randy Jackson said the elimination was perhaps the first time since he’d been with the show that he felt so mad: “I’m never upset on this show and I’m never really mad. But this makes me mad,” he said.
Steven Tyler was even more direct, criticizing viewers for not voting right by telling them that, while a mistake is understandable, “lack of passion” should never be condoned.
Even host Ryan Seacrest seemed to voice some sort of uneasy feeling about the elimination, saying, before the show ended, “We need you. Stay with us this season.”
By the time the show ended, Lopez could be heard sobbing uncontrollably.
Below is the shock elimination on American Idol and a video of Pia Toscano’s performance of “I’ll Stand by You,” the first time a contestant got a standing ovation this season.
Enjoy and, as usual, feel free to voice your take on the elimination in the comments section below.
Pia Toscano - “I’ll Stand by You”