Season Ten Gender Voting Bias and Pia Toscano's Elimination
The first five contestants eliminated from the finals in Season 10 were all female, which led some critics to believe that it was partly due to the demographic of the voters being skewed towards females who tended to vote for men. Idol producer Ken Warwick said, "It's no secret that most reality shows are female driven, either by moms or by young girls. It does mean we're going to get a heftier amount of female votes and it's always bent towards the boys, obviously, we are very much aware that the voting can be skewed towards the boys. In response to the criticism, the producers considered tweaking the voting format for the following season to correct the bias. The last of these five girls to be eliminated was a presumed front-runner, Pia Toscano, and her elimination drew considerable criticisms, with various former Idol alums and celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Tom Hanks expressing shock and surprise. However, after Toscano's elimination, the next five eliminated contestants were all males.
Read more about this topic: American Idol Controversies, Voting Controversies
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