Jermaine Jones was disqualified from American Idol after lying to producers about his criminal past.

The televised confrontation took place during last night's show after host Ryan Seacrest teased viewers about a departure. After contestants performed, video of a meeting between Idol producers and Jones was shown. The 24-year-old defended his two arrests and outstanding warrants. "It wasn't a fight, I wasn't fighting," Jones protested.

Jones then explained the fight was a "disagreement with one of my friends" that never became physical, but failed to reveal his arrests because he was "scared and nervous." However, Nigel Lythgoe made it clear contestants with outstanding arrests cannot be featured on the show.

According to TMZ, one of the incidents involved violence and Jones allegedly gave police phony names during both arrests.

Idol producers apparently stumbled across Jones' criminal past after looking into claims he made early on in the competition that he had been abandoned by his father a decade ago. Jones' father called TMZ to say that he sees his son on a regular basis. When producers caught Jones in that lie -- followed by another one in which he publicly denied telling them he and his dad are estranged -- they started digging and learned about his criminal history.

Tags: American Idol