American Idol 4
Top Ranked Mario Vazquez Withdraws -
Speculation Runs Rampant
By Ron Lemon
March 14, 2005
Mario Vazquez who was ranked first among the Top 12 here at RTVC and ranked third by the major online betting odds makers, has withdrawn from the American Idol competition. He will be replaced by Nikko Smith.
The 27 year old from New York city cited "personal reasons" in a statement released by FOX yesterday. A Fox spokesman refused further comment according to Variety. By 4pm EST Sunday, Vazquez had been eliminated from the FOX website and Nikko Smith had appeared.
Last night in an interview with TV Guide Mario said, he quit to "take care of some personal issues with my family in New York. And with Idol being a live show, it just wouldn't have worked out schedule-wise." "I'm healthy, I'm fine," "It's just a personal family thing. My family is my top priority."
His performances of Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" and the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", won him an early following in the competition.
Mario Vazques
Nikko Smith
Reality TV Calendar Staff Writer and American Idol recap / rankings expert Jillian Kuras has ranked substitute Nikko Smith as finishing 9th in the competition. At this writing the odds makers have not yet responded. Jillian had ranked Mario in the first position.
Jillian checked in with message boards this morning and reported.....
"There's a lot of speculation on the message boards. Some are saying he might have had a recording contract prior to American Idol and was using this as exposure, FOX found out and asked him to leave. Some think he may be over the age limit. Also in his FOX interview he mentioned something about how he wanted to surprise his mom. Some people think his mom may be sick so the surprise is him going home to be with her. Others are saying that maybe he is going to be a father and he went home to be with his girlfriend."
At this point it is "all speculation. I'm hoping on tomorrow's show they will go into a little more detail. If he was booted though, it would say eliminated under his picture on the AI website. It says withdrew. When Corey Clark, Frenchie and the others left it said eliminated." "It has to be something pretty bad for him to just up and quit. Especially since he was such a huge favorite."
Jillian goes on to address the current rankings....
"Even though I have Carrie in first right now, I really think a guy is going to win this year. But I'll wait til they sing tomorrow before I think about re-ranking."
Odds makers currently favor Anwar Robinson to win.
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