Caleb Kennedy made it to the top 5 on American Idol this past Sunday, but he will not be performing this week. That is because he was forced to leave the singing competition after an old video surfaced of him with a friend dressed in a KKK hood.
“Hey y’all, this is gonna be a bit of a surprise, but I am no longer gonna be on American Idol,” Kennedy wrote on social media. “There was a video that surfaced on the Internet and it displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way. I was younger and did not think about the actions, but that’s not an excuse. I wanna say sorry to all my fans and everyone who I have let down. I’ll be taking a little time off social media to better myself, but saying that, I know this has hurt and disappointed a lot of people and made people lose respect for me. I’m so sorry! I pray that I can one day regain your trust in who I am and have your respect! Thank you for supporting me.”
According to KABC’s George Pennacchio, the show will go on with only four contestants this Sunday. I guess that means no one will be eliminated this week.
ABC had no choice but to get rid of him after Roseanne sent a racist tweet, and this season’s Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell who was photographed at a party at a Plantation a few years ago. When Chris Harrison defended her, he was asked to take a break from the franchise. Therefore, any perception of racism by anyone on their network will lead to that person’s dismissal (unless all of their stuff was pretaped).
Back to Idol, Kennedy is the second person to leave the show this season who was not eliminated. Wyatt Pike asked to leave for personal reasons when he made the top 12.
