Meet Simon Cowell (?)
Tim and I have been watching the first couple weeks of American Idol. The tryouts are the best part for me. I'm not sure I'll watch after that, but for now it's an entertaining show.
Tens of thousands of people show up for the tryouts and it doesn't take much math to realize that they don't all get to see Simon, Paula, and Randy. So how does it work? Is it random, first come-first serve, prescreened?
There isn't a lot of info available on the web, but all the info I could find pointed toward some element of prescreening depending on the turnout. They take the really good people and the really bad people and push them through to the three main judges.
The competition is so popular with thousands attempting to audition, that associate producers and judges prescreen contestants in the parking lot at many venues. If an audition has the talent, then he or she is passed through to Directors Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Fuller. If the contestants impress either or both of these two men, the contestant is then allowed a chance to impress the celebrity judges by — meeting Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. [source]