American Idol’s Top 24 for the current season were (over) dramatically announced on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, but due to a communication mix-up, one of the top twelve dudes lost his coveted spot.

Chris Golightly, a kind of Justin Guarini: II with a heartstring-tugging history growing up in foster care, wooed crowds with a version of Stand By Me during initial auditions. But an earlier, now defunct, contract with a “boy band” saw Golightly suddenly and brusquely DQ’d from the karaoke competition after a former manager threatened Idol‘s management over the curly-haired crooner.

Golightly thinks the show jumped the gun in cutting him before investigating the email informant’s claims:

Shortly after Chris got 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 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.

“This is not fair; I don’t know what to do,” he said when reached by phone this morning.

Fox released a statement about Golightly’s elimination:

“It has been determined that Chris Golightly is ineligible to continue in the competition. ‘American Idol’ contestant Tim Urban has replaced Golightly as part of the Top 24.”

Golightly is trying to fight the decision but has as of yet been unable to reach Idol producers. What do you think? Should Chris be allowed back in since this was clearly a mistake? Should the Top 24 be a Top 25 this season?