American Idol' narrows it down to the final 24
It will be February 2009 before America again experiences suspense like it did Wednesday night. In the next 12 months, our nation will choose a new president; endure triumph, tragedy and, as seems likely today, a recession; crown Academy Award winners; and live through the Olympics gymnastics competition. Perhaps none of it will compare to the drama and tension on Wednesday's "American Idol."
The episode is known to the "Idol" crew as the Green Mile, comparing the walk each contestant must take to hear his or her fate to the fabled last walk of those on death row. On this one harrowing night a year, "Idol" has constructed an hour of television in which drama is stripped down to its essentials and held steady in the blistering glare of the klieg lights.
There is no singing to distract from the angst on Green Mile night, no touching video packages -- we simply spend an hour watching as, one by one, each contestant rides an elevator, trudges across a vast auditorium floor and sits alone before the judges to hear whether, having emerged from 100,000 to the top 50, they are about to be tossed back into the anonymous swamp where they have previously toiled or enter history as one of Season 7's 24.
continue...
The episode is known to the "Idol" crew as the Green Mile, comparing the walk each contestant must take to hear his or her fate to the fabled last walk of those on death row. On this one harrowing night a year, "Idol" has constructed an hour of television in which drama is stripped down to its essentials and held steady in the blistering glare of the klieg lights.
There is no singing to distract from the angst on Green Mile night, no touching video packages -- we simply spend an hour watching as, one by one, each contestant rides an elevator, trudges across a vast auditorium floor and sits alone before the judges to hear whether, having emerged from 100,000 to the top 50, they are about to be tossed back into the anonymous swamp where they have previously toiled or enter history as one of Season 7's 24.
continue...
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