The world was put into a state of shock on April 7, when Queens native, Pia Toscano, was voted off of “American Idol.”

Toscano had been a frontrunner to win this season’s “Idol” since the very beginning. It was also her fifth time auditioning for a spot on the hit Fox show. This season’s judges, Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler, and Jennifer Lopez, have been praising Toscano on her golden voice and ability to hit notes similar to Celine Dion and Whitney Houston.

It was in recent weeks that Lopez particularly, had been criticizing Toscano’s lack of performing and interacting with the audience. The judges also had something to say about Pia’s attraction to singing slow, ballad songs. Granted, when she did mix it up with Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” Toscano was voted off of the show.

When Ryan Seacrest announced that Pia was the one going home, as opposed to the recently laid off, Stefano, the entire audience erupted with gasps and cries of disappointment. The judges were visibly upset, as were the rest of the contestants.

After watching a video of her journey through the 10th season of American Idol, Toscano belted out her beautiful rendition of “I’ll Stand By You” and ended in tears.

The media went into an explosion of arguments, trying to decipher exactly why Toscano, one of the best voices in the competition, went home incredibly early.

There is no right answer, but there were some good attempts; a lot of critics say that because Pia has such an amazing voice and a strong fan following, the rest of America thought she was safe and that she didn’t need their vote.

Another theory was that it was the judges’ fault. Without Simon Cowell’s presence, the judges have gone soft. They have been praising every contestant and not really giving constructive criticism; and even when they do, it’s incubated by a sweet, praiseful compliment.

Yet, this is not the first time America swore off “American Idol” because they were upset with the winner or who got voted off during the season. Two seasons ago, when season eight winner, Kris Allen, rang over Adam Lambert, many people were upset.

Also, most notably, Chris Daughtry was eliminated early in the fifth season and Jennifer Hudson was voted off seventh during the third season of “Idol.” Both artists have gone on to become some of the biggest names in music; Hudson even won an Academy Award for her performance in “Dream Girls.”

“American Idol” has endured a lot of criticism over the past few seasons about their voting system and leaving it solely up to the country to vote for the next singing star. Many people feel as if the voting system should change, whether they take a hint from “Dancing With the Stars” and have the scores be half from the judges and half from the country or have America vote for the bottom three contestants and have the judges pick who packs their bags.

When Americans are upset because their favorite did not win or someone who should have won heads home, they vow to never watch “American Idol” again. Now, with new performance shows such as “America’s Got Talent” and “The Voice,” “Idol” needs all the ratings they can get, and that means keeping the viewers happy and onboard. A lot of people have already checked out of watching “American Idol” because of flubs on previous seasons.

It’s up to “Idol” if they want to change to make America happy.