So far this year on American Idol, we’ve been rather uninspired by most of the contestants, including many of those in the top 24. Overall, the men have seemed especially bland this season, but last night we finally started to click with a few of the top 10 male contestants.

American Idol contestant Chris Golightly is still fighting to return to the show after being disqualified after reaching the Top 24 in the competition. Even American Idol judge Simon Cowell expressed surprise over Golightly’s elimination from the show and vowed to “find out what the reason is” behind the decision to boot him.

American Idol contestant Chris Golightly will not be moving on to the finals of the reality show after all. Golightly was allegedly disqualified from the American Idol Top 24 over a contract issue.

Last night’s American Idol auditions in Chicago were some of the worst of the season so far, with only 13 of 12,000 hopefuls making it through to Hollywood. Although overall the audition show was kind of a downer, guest judge Shania Twain was a treat to watch.

Will American Idol producers keep it in the family when they replace outgoing judge Simon Cowell? Rumor has it AI is considering doing just that by moving host Ryan Seacrest into Cowell’s soon to be vacated seat on the judging panel.

New judge Ellen DeGeneres won’t be the only major change in the next season of American Idol. The new season of American Idol will also reportedly be moving to 9PM on Fox when it debuts January 12. The reality TV singing competition is being shoved an hour later to make way for a new Fox drama series called Human Target.