American Idol host Ryan Seacrest shocked viewers during the first live show when he delayed the announcement of season 24’s Top 12 contestants.
The ABC reality competition was seemingly set to reveal which of the 14 hopefuls would make it through “Songs of Faith Night” during the Monday, March 30, episode when Ryan, 51, confirmed that there would be a delay due to an “unprecedented” 10 million votes being cast. Citing ongoing voting tabulations, Ryan explained that the Top 12 would now be revealed at the top of next week’s live show instead.
Before the lights dimmed, Seacrest told viewers that, for the first time in history, the show let viewers vote in five different ways, including a new social media voting system that resulted in “tens of millions of votes coming in at a rate we’ve never seen before. Truly unprecedented,” the longtime host said.
“To ensure complete accuracy with the numbers, I was literally just told we are not going to announce eliminations tonight,” Seacrest said as the panel reacted in shock.
He continued, “This is the first time it’s ever happened. Believe me, I’ve been here every night. We want to make sure we get every vote counted, and every vote right. We’ll carry forward those votes, get everything verified.”
The Top 14 contestants and American Idol‘s judges — Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and Lionel Richie — appeared to be stunned as Ryan announced the first-of-its-kind delay in voting results for the franchise. Fans can expect elimination overload on the show next week because Idol is supposed to whittle the contestants down to the Top 11 by the end of the night on Monday, April 6.
Credit: yahoonews
