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"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. &amp;quot;The fact of the matter is, it appears that Pia didn&amp;apos;t connect with the audience the way we maybe think she did,&amp;quot; Lythgoe told Yahoo&amp;apos;s Reality Rocks blog.&amp;#xA0;\r\nThis 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&amp;#xA0; can vote for the bottom   three contestants and the judges decide who will be eliminated. (Watch Lythgoe&amp;apos;s interview with Reality Rocks below.)\r\nChoose the Cover of Rolling Stone, Round Two: Vote by April 14!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&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;River Deep, Mountain High,&amp;quot; which you can watch below. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/producer-says-pia-toscano-was-never-an-american-idol-frontrunner-20110411>