After abrupt exit from 'The Voice,' Ryan Gallagher's manager denies he breached COVID protocols

A week after contestant Ryan Gallagher's abrupt exit from "The Voice," his manager is denying claims that it was due to breaching the show's COVID-19 protocols.

"The Voice" host Carson Daly announced on air Monday that Gallagher, a member of Team Kelly Clarkson, "had to exit the competition," without elaborating further. A joint statement from NBC and MGM to USA TODAY on Sunday said Gallagher is a talented artist, but had to be removed after they had been "made aware of a breach" in their "strict COVID protocols."

“After examining the situation, and out of abundance of caution, we determined that Ryan could not participate in our Monday night show without potentially putting others at risk. Therefore, we made the difficult decision to remove Ryan from the competition," the statement added.

Michael Catalano, Gallagher's manager, said in a statement obtained by USA TODAY that Gallagher was dismissed from the show last Sunday for "an alleged violation of the show’s COVID-19 protocol," though Gallagher tweeted about performing on the show as recently as Monday morning.

"In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth," Catalano said of the allegations, noting that Gallagher understood how serious the pandemic is because his mother was recently in the ICU for three weeks with the novel coronavirus.

"It was a scary time for Ryan and his family and he certainly would not knowingly put anyone at risk by not adhering to the show’s COVID-19 policy," Catalano added. "As you can imagine there is more to the story here than the show has announced and at an appropriate time and place of our choosing Ryan and I will be able to share the balance of the details, as well as Ryan’s side of the story."

What made things more peculiar was that Gallagher had tweeted about being a contestant on the show early Monday, making it seem like his exit was a last-minute decision. "Here we go America!! Never thought a small town guy like me would make it here!" he wrote.

Fans originally speculated that the reason for Gallagher's departure was due to a sickness in his family, since he shared earlier this season that his mother had been hospitalized with COVID-19.

In a tweet Monday evening, however, Gallagher returned to Twitter to give an update on why he wasn't on the show, ruling out a family sickness but otherwise leaving things unclear.

"Thank you everybody for the concern for my family. However, everybody's fine. That's not the cause of what happened tonight on 'The Voice'," he says in the clip. "I didn't drop out of the show, details are still to come, I'll keep you posted."

On his Instagram Stories, he also posted a photo of himself in a tuxedo with the words: "2020 you are an interesting one"

Contributing: Sara M. Moniuszko

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Voice' says Ryan Gallagher broke COVID protocols, manager rebuts