JENNIFER Hudson says she wasn’t shocked at getting booted off Wednesday’s “American Idol” – but she may have been the only one who wasn’t.
Viewers were stunned when the hit talent show’s top three singers – Hudson, LaToya London and Fantasia Barrino, all widely seen as shoo-ins for the final spots – were threatened with banishment.
“I think people just take it for granted because it’s Fantasia, Jennifer and LaToya, and we are the divas,” Hudson said on yesterday’s “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” hosted by the “AI” emcee. “They just assume we’d be fine so they decided to help out somebody else . . . and just left us hanging.”
Fans seem stunned that not one – but all three front-runners were put on the brink of elimination.
Ultimately it’s Hudson who was booted Wednesday, drawing howls of outrage.
“I wasn’t shocked, not at all, I knew it – it was more like, ‘Well, this is it, I’m glad I got a chance to get a little bit of Jennifer out there,'” said Jennifer. “I could not believe what the vote actually was,” “The View” co-host Star Jones, one of the show’s most public supporters, told The Post yesterday.
“The young girl [Jennifer] who got dumped off was absolutely the best of the night.
“Clearly it’s based on popularity,” said Jones, an avid fan of the show who talks up the show regularly on “The View.” “Little girls vote for cute boys they wanna date . . . they’re voting on popularity, and I get that – but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.”
Theories were abounding yesterday on just why Hudson was kicked off. “Extra” reported that a power outage in Chicago, Hudson’s home town, might have kept over 15,000 fans from watching and/or voting for Hudson after Tuesday’s live performance show.
“AI” judge Paula Abdul told “Entertainment Tonight” that she thought the reason Hudson received so few votes was because many viewers used “power auto dialers” – making multiple calls to one number at the push of a button.
Ken Warwick, the executive producer of “AI,” released a statement yesterday addressing the controversial voting against Hudson.
“As proven with [Wednesday night’s] results, you can never assume that any contestant is safe,” he said. “You can never assume that they have enough votes.
“It’s imperative that viewers vote for their favorite ‘Idol’ every week.”
