When we see them in the stadium, each person sings in front of someone from the AI staff. Then from there, people who are either good singers or good TV can move on to the Simon, Randy, Kara round. Those judges give the Hollywood yes or no.
Usually less then 200 people are picked to move on to Hollywood. In Hollywood they sing individually and in groups. Multiple people are eliminated at once several times each day. They get it down to about 50.
In the last few years, they have done this episode where the top 50 meet individually with the judges and find out if they are in the top 24. We call it the Elevator Episode (because they are constantly shown riding up to the room in an elevator).
When the top 24 are selected, that is when the audience can start voting. It’s again knocked down to 12 people and that is when they go to the big stage.
Thanks so much for taking the time to bring me up to speed.
I hesitated to ask...feeling like those stupid man-on-the-street people who can’t identify which party controls congress!