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I do believe they would call the finalists last. First they'd make their immediate cuts (interview just didn't go right, didn't fit what they saw on tape/application). The PAs start making those calls when they can to just get them out of the way and to stop thinking about them. Cross the name off, go on with the process.
Each PA probably has a list of candidates they like. Let's play with some numbers (all this is spec, based on things I've read and heard):
You're a PA and you come out of the interviews with 100 to 200 candidates that you've interviewed (2 to 4 cities per PA team), so lets call it 150. At 15 minutes a tape, to review all of them would take 35 hours. You toss some right after the interview and call or send letters or whatever. Say that gets you down to 100. You still can't go to the big casting meeting with 100 candidates. So you make some decisions and get in down to 50 or so (and that still seems high to me).
You have to think about those AND think about all the previous L.A. finalists that you might want to bring back.
We've had a couple of people say that they got rejection calls one day early. Perhaps they were in the last or second to last cut of the big casting meeting. They'll just keep pruning down the list until they have their 48.
My point is your friend should take pride and hope from the fact that they HAVEN'T called. Even if they call right now, it means he made it that much closer.
On the other hand, I can't imagine the waiting. And I pity the telemarketer from the 310 area code that calls him this week.