It’s shaping up to be a two-man race

And so after a brief interlude of basking in the spotlight, posturing on landing strips alongside private jets, walking the red carpet at the season-opening party and taking their first steps onto the “Idol” stage before tens of millions, as spring will eventually turn into winter the season of death comes once again to “Idol

The Top 24 they may be, drawn out of the masses to claim their place in history, but nonetheless, within the next three weeks, half of them must die.

As always in these early days, that news hits many of them very hard.

The young men and women seemed to have sharply divergent attitudes to the Grim Reaper’s first dance on the “Idol” stage (with his henchman the diabolical Seacrest). Last year the contestants quickly formed a tight-knit group of friends, sharing the fiction that they were all in this together. This year the guys, thus far at least, seem to be skipping that little coping mechanism. None of them other than the emotive Danny Noriega showed anything more than polite condolence for Colton Berry and Garrett Haley as they were dispatched.

On the young women’s side, however, the entire two-tiered couch seemed to come seriously unhinged by this glimpse of mortality. Strangely, the eyes stayed dry for swimsuit model Amy Davis’ rejection, but when plus-size model (“Idol” voters are never kind to models) Joanne Borgella was sent back to Hoboken, N.J., the waterworks turned on like never before. Were Ramiele Malubay and Kady Malloy that distraught to see Joanne go, were they relieved to have dodged the scythe themselves or were they just making sure the cameras found their way back to them, knowing that tears are sure-fire bait for airtime?

But after their bronchitis-marred iffy opening night, the ladies are looking like also-rans in what is shaping up as a two-man race -- one between remarkably divergent talents: the demonic (as The Times’ Ann Powers aptly describes him) Duende From Down Under, Michael Johns, 29, versus the Chosen One, 17-year-old prodigy David Archuleta.

The pairing is unprecedented on both sides, pitting the dark, sensual force of Johns against the first “Idol” contender with tween appeal and true talent. And ultimately, I think, it is tween talent that has the power to absolutely dominate this competition.

The latent, unsatisfied demand of the tween audience for a cute boy to get behind has been the sleeping giant of “Idol” voting. In seasons past, this yearning has catapulted very questionable talents -- such as Kevin Covais, Anthony Fedorov and even Sanjaya Malakar -- into the Top 12.

Now, given a young (and younger-looking) pretty boy with genuine vocal ability, there may be nothing that can stop this force of millions of power-dialing 11-year-old girls.

A fascinating video has surfaced on the Web in recent weeks recently:

The video shows a 12-year-old Chosen One singing a number from “Dreamgirls” for the cast of “Idol” Season 1, receiving props from Herself, eventual winner Kelly Clarkson. Like the film of a young Bill Clinton shaking hands with JFK at the White House, this clip captures the moment when the torch is passed to a new generation, the fire of competitive singing kept alive for a few years more.

But more important, as this video proves, we are now seeing the children created by “Idol” come of age and step up to join its ranks. This year’s teenage contestants grew up watching “Idol,” and were shaped in the image of Kelly and Clay, Fantasia and Justin.

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richard.rushfield @latimes.com