Pia Toscano Dating Mark Ballas, in Demand by Fans

Pia Toscano Dating Mark Ballas as Fans Demand Her Return to American Idol

American Idol star Pia Toscano is dating musician and DWTS pro Mark Ballas. TMZ reports that Pia Toscano and Mark Ballas were, like, totally making out. OMG. Idol and DWTS both film at CBS Television City, and apparently Toscano and Ballas caught each other's eyes. Mark Ballas is paired with Disney star Chelsea Kane.

Strangely, there's a professional wrestling angle to this story: Apparently Pia Toscano's phone number was passed to Mark Ballas via WWE legend Chris Jericho, who is appearing on Dancing with the Stars.

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Pia Toscano at Paleyfest 2011

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Fans Demand Pia Toscano Return

Pia Toscano's fans are demanding that their idol return to Idol, insisting that the producers kick Stephano Langone off instead. Fair enough, I guess, to make that request, but Pia Toscano was kicked off American Idol because she got fewer votes that Stephano Langone did. Calling a do-over would surely only result in her getting kicked off twice.

Pia's fans have reached out to Stephano directly, somehow thinking that there's a ghost of a chance that he'll say, "Sure, I'll pull myself out of the national spotlight because random internet strangers asked me to".

At the end of the day, Pia's media popularity didn't translate into reality-show votes. Nigel Lythgoe, exec producer of American Idol, says that Pia Toscano was never actually a frontrunner in this season's competition:

Nigel Lythgoe Discusses Pia Toscano Elimination from Yahoo! Music on Vimeo.