Producer Says Pia Toscano was Never an ‘American Idol’ Frontrunner
According to American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe, recently ousted contestant Pia Toscano was never at any point a frontrunner in the singing competition, which he says is especially competitive this season. “The fact of the matter is, it appears that Pia didn’t connect with the audience the way we maybe think she did,” Lythgoe told Yahoo’s Reality Rocks blog.
This may come as a surprise given how many fans were outraged when Toscano was eliminated from the contest last week. The widespread assumption that Toscano was doing well in the competition has Lythgoe considering a change in the voting process at Idol to make the show more similar to So You Think You Can Dance, which he also produces. On that show, viewers can vote for the bottom three contestants and the judges decide who will be eliminated. (Watch Lythgoe’s interview with Reality Rocks below.)
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Toscano may be out of the running to win Idol, but she is doing quite well for herself. According to Us Magazine, the singer signed a record contract with Interscope less than a day after being voted off the show. She also stopped by the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform a medley of her Idol hits, including a version of Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” which you can watch below.