Erika Van Pelt ‘felt shafted’ by Idol Judges

Randy Jackson highly appreciated her and while praising her, he said that she was one of the best singers in the American Idol competition.
However, other American Idol judges and his costars, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez were not ready to save Erika Van Pely from elimination as she was eliminated last week.

Erika is being working as a DJ and singer in Rhode Island. Recently, she shared her opinion about her early departure from music competition show American Idol. She said she was totally surprised by the results.

“I definitely felt a little shafted by their decision not to save me,” she told to reporters, referring to the panel’s ability to veto the audience’s decision one time during the season. “It’s one of those things that, in hindsight, I’m looking at it like they didn’t want to use their save this early.”

During her interview, Erika mentioned how Casey Abram was save from elimination and was saved by judges during the season 10. After that, Pia Toscano also ended up in the bottom a few weeks later and there was no chance to save her and as a result, Toscano was sent home and her elimination became one of the most shocking elimination of American Idol.

“I was not expecting to be the first of the top ten to go home – certainly. I’m not sure they were expecting it either,” Erika says. “But I feel like even if they felt like I didn’t deserve to go home, they just didn’t want to waste that save in case America decided to do something really crazy.”