American Idol season 16 revival reportedly set for ABC; Fox misses out
There’s no more reason to dim the lights — American Idol season 16 is officially happening.
According to Variety, ABC has closed a deal with FremantleMedia North America and CORE Media Group — the two owners of the show — in order to bring the show back on the air. Fox, which aired the series for the first 15 seasons before eventually opting to shut it down, was also in the discussions before getting outbid in the end. It’s really ironic that a network that once thought the franchise had run its course is now running back, but this is what happens in an era where you’ve got shows airing on both networks that are generating around a 0.5 rating. They’re desperate to find programming people will watch live, and American Idol does offer that even if it’s a shell of what it once was.
It certainly also helps that FremantleMedia has been working with ABC on a wide array of different projects as of late, whether it be Celebrity Family Feud (the real one as opposed to the SNL sketch) or Match Game.
Season 16 of American Idol is tentatively set to air on Sundays for the network, and the projected premiere date is around March, after presumably the deluge of the Oscars / Golden Globes / NFL Football / Grammys / other stuff is over. We don’t think that this is a signal by any means that Once Upon a Time is dead, given the fact that they could always either put the shows on the same night or move the fairy-tale drama somewhere else if it is renewed. In the end, it’s clear that Sunday nights on ABC did need some sort of lifeline, given that the ratings there have been garbage for a little while. American Crime is a good show, but that in itself is the only reason why it’s being kept on the air. Were it not for the quality, it’d be pulled from the air at this point.
Now, the next order of business will be seeing if this show ends up retaining Ryan Seacrest as host (he’s rather busy these days), and also who they will hire as the judges. Odds are, it’ll be a new panel featuring some more cost-effective names.
What do you think about American Idol heading over to ABC this season? Share in the comments below!
Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here to get some further news right now when it comes to the show. (Photo: Fox.)