Ryan Gallagher’s departure from “The Voice” came a little sooner than expected.
On Monday night, host Carson Daly announced that the opera singer from small-town Michigan — whose “Voice” audition has 2.6 million views on YouTube — “had to exit the competition,” CNN reported.
The 31-year-old singer, who was on Kelly Clarkson’s team, had posted on Instagram as recently as Sunday, asking fans to help him choose what suit to wear for Monday night’s show — where he would learn if he’d made it past the four-way knockout and into the live round, according to MLive.
Earlier in the season, Gallagher told the “Voice” coaches that his mom was in the hospital with COVID-19, Billboard reported. But the singer recently took to Instagram to say that his abrupt exit wasn’t connected to his family.
“Thank you everybody for your concern for my family. However everybody’s fine,” he said in an Instagram story, according to Billboard. “That’s not the cause of what happened tonight on ‘The Voice.’ I didn’t drop out of the show. Details are still to come. I’ll keep you posted.”
However, a “Voice” spokesperson has since told MLive that the singer broke the show’s COVID-19 safety protocols.
“‘The Voice’ has strict COVID protocols in place to secure a safe set,” NBC Universal’s Tori Walsh said in a statement. “Ryan broke those protocols and out of an abundance of caution, we cannot have him continue in the competition and potentially put others at risk.”
Monday night’s episode revealed that Gallagher would not be claiming the final spot in the live round, as the majority of the votes for the four-way knockout went to singer Taryn Papa, who is on Blake Shelton’s team, MLive reported.
The next episode of “The Voice” airs Tuesday at 7 p.m. MT. The episode will reveal the singers advancing to the show’s top nine.