On Wednesday, "American Idol" promised all night to reveal its top 24 contestants, but they ultimately revealed the identity of only five semi-finalists. On a Beatles-themed evening, they said hello to the likes of karaoke host (and onetime tormenter of fellow singer Jacee Badeaux) Clint Jun Gamboa, small featured but very soulful singer/songwriter Paul McDonald, and sweet-voiced Naima Adedapo, who left behind a life of scrubbing toilets at a Milwaukee concert venue for life crooning in Idol Land.

Yet they also said goodbye to a bunch of reality show hopefuls we'd come to know well. As they await word on Thursday (February 24) of the remainder of the top 24, let's take a moment to keep in mind a number of season 10's most memorable singers who got the boot on Wednesday.

They can wonder why producers ever invited the alarmingly fragile 25-year-old to Hollywood -- only falling onto her knees and bursting in to riotous tears at the New Jersey audition earned her a golden ticket -- but there is no doubting that Sullivan became one of the season's most recognizable faces (even if that face was most often contorted in tears). While they desired to be the first show-tune pop star, Sullivan in lieu became another contestant who melted in the spotlight. They tried to quit in the work of group week, forgot her lyrics in the work of a subsequent solo performance, and then got married, seemingly on a whim, to her fella when the show made a Vegas stopover. Her wedding present from "Idol" producers? A one-way ticket back home.


Molly DeWolf Swensen
They were seriously kind of surprised this White House intern was still in the competition. After being heavily featured in the work of her Milwaukee audition -- and judge Steven Tyler exclaiming of the high-heeled, blond-haired singer, "Who knew what was goin' on at the White House?" -- the 22-year-old virtually disappeared from the screen. When they popped back up on Wednesday, they were reminded of her killer audition of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay." Alas, she'll be heading back east to help President Obama run the country than assisting Randy Jackson's try to rescue "Idol" ratings.

Chris Medina
Chicagoan Chris Medina, 26, melted hearts in his show-ending audition with the story about his longtime love, Juliana Ramos, and the car accident that forever changed their lives. After eight years together, Medina proposed to his girlfriend two years ago and the couple planned to wed soon after. A short time later, though, she was in a car accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury and in a coma that doctors didn't think she'd wake from.
Most "Idol" observers believed Medina was a lock to make the top 24. Not only did they possess an above-average device, but they arrived on the scene with a heartbreaking backstory. His fiance suffered a traumatic brain injury following a car accident and Medina became her caretaker. Wheelchair-bound, they was ushered in to the audition room in Milwaukee and made to clutch Medina's golden ticket after his admirable take on Script's "Breakeven." They went on to be featured often in Hollywood Week but left judge Jennifer Lopez in tears when they said by way of booting him off on Wednesday, "It honestly breaks my heart to say this. ..."