ET catches up with Garrett Haley, Amy Davis, Colton Berry and Joanne Borgella as they come to the end of their "Idol" dream.

America had its first chance to weigh-in on which of the Final 24 "American Idol" hopefuls will continue on to the Top 12 this week -- and GARRETT HALEY, AMY DAVIS, JOANNE BORGELLA and COLTON BERRY were the first four given the boot.

For Garrett, it was a bittersweet occasion. He was thrilled that he made the Final 24, but when it came time for his first performance, it was his song choice that was most likely the reason he was eliminated -- and it turns out the choice of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" wasn't really his.

"We are allowed to choose three songs from a list," he tells reporters. "Every contestant is for sure to get one of the songs; I didn't get any of my songs, because they had given them out to all the contestants before that, so I just ended up with having to choose from the list again. I didn't get to chose. They threw the song at me and said, 'Sing this one.' I took what I got and I did what I could with it. It is hard to make a ballad song pop out at the beginning. I did the best I could and I am happy with what I did."

As for Amy, she actually says she was waiting for host RYAN SEACREST to call her name, because she was aware she didn't have a good performance.

"It is a technical issue on just my part of why it was a bad performance," Amy explains. "There is nothing I could do about that. It was just the fact of me not being able to hear myself. It wasn't an 'American Idol' issue, or a sound issue on their part. It is the way my brain works. I have been using an in-ear monitor for the past two years. The way my brain works is very mechanical. It is not creative and go-with-the-flow like a lot of musicians. My brain is trained to use the in-ear monitor that blares my vocals, so I can stay on pitch. Obviously, when I came to 'American Idol,' I knew I wasn't be able to use my in-ears, so I tried to retrain my ears to use the floor monitors, and I just could not retrain my ears quick enough to stay on key. It was my 'bad skill' that I couldn't improve quickly enough."

For Joanne, "Idol" was her second time on a reality series. She was the winner of one season of "Mo'Nique's Fat Chance," a beauty pageant for plus-sized women. And while she doesn't feel that her size had anything to do with her early dismissal from the talent competition, she does say she feels there are certain expectations that come with it.

"Usually with a plus-sized woman you think they are going to sing neo-soul," she says. "For me, I love that music, but that isn't the kind of performer I am. I don't sing that kind of music. I listen to pop and R&B -- WHITNEY HOUSTON and CELINE DION. I love doing power ballads, but I also want to do the song you would love to dance to in a club. You don't usually put that with a plus-sized woman."

Colton says he feels like a winner just having made it into the semi-finals of the show: "I have had two dreams in life," he relates. "I am 18. I was born in 1990. My dreams since I was young -- No. 1 was to be on 'American idol,' because I grew up with the show, and No 2. was to be on Broadway. I can check off the first one. And, hopefully, that first check will lead me to my second one. That is what I am getting ready to pursue. I am going to set up as many auditions as I can and really go for that."