Did American Idol Screw Chris Golightly?

(HMG) – A surprise exit on American Idol first saw curly-haired Chris Golightly in the Season 9′s Top 24 group shot with Ryan Seacrest near the end of Wednesday’s show.  But when the 12 male semifinalists were shown individually, Chris had been replaced by Tim Urban.

Golightly is a 19-year-old Texas native who spoke in earlier rounds of bouncing among many different foster homes as a child.

“It has been determined that Chris Golightly is ineligible to continue in the competition,” a press release from FOX says. “American Idol contestant Tim Urban has replaced Golightly as part of the Top 24.”

Hours after the disqualification was revealed, host Ryan Seacrest posted the same statement on his Twitter page, butdid not elaborate on why Golightly was booted.

Speaking to USA Today’s Idol Chatter, Chris says:

“Everything was fine when I made the Top 24,” but things quickly went sour.

He tells Idol Chatter:

Shortly after getting the news that he’d made the cut, he says a former manager named Lawrence Franklin emailed 19 Entertainment claiming that Chris was under a recording contract.  Chris says he then received an email on behalf of the show, saying that he would be disqualified if, indeed, he was under contract. Chris says he then called Lawrence Franklin, reminding him that his contract had ended the month before he’d auditioned for Idol.

Within a day or two, Chris got another phone call, this one from American Idol supervising producer Patrick Lynn, telling him that he had been disqualified.

That same day, however, Chris says he and the Idol producers got another email from Franklin, this one saying that there had been a mix-up and that Chris had been released from his contract before he’d auditioned.

Unfortunately for Chris, by that point, Tim Urban had been notified, and the Idol producers had moved too far along to reverse course.

Still unknown: What the future holds for Michael “Big Mike” Lynche, the new dad who was reportedly dismissed in late January because his father spoke to a Florida newspaper, breaking the show’s rules of confidentiality. A day after the top 24 was revealed, Big Mike’s profile is intact on the show’s Web site.

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