"I don't like to speculate about that kind of stuff because I like to have faith in Idol. They've given me this huge platform and I totally respect everything that they do on that show," Hernandez told Reality TV World on Thursday afternoon. "I'd like to think America voted on me and it was legitimate."
Hernandez was ousted from Idol's seventh season after "over 29 million" home viewer votes were cast following Tuesday night's live performance episode broadcast -- slightly more than a week after it was first revealed he "steadily worked" for three years as a male stripper at Dick's Cabaret, where he appeared fully nude and performed lap dances for the establishment's "mostly male" patrons.