The symbolic leader of the modern day singing competition is coming to an end.
Fox announced that American Idol will end after season 15 ahead of their Upfront presentation Monday morning. Current judges Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr., and Keith Urban, as well as long-time host Ryan Seacrest, will see the show through its final season.
The network is promising the final season of American Idol will “pay tribute to the past 14 seasons of amazingly talented contestants and the millions of fans who tweeted, texted and championed their Idols.”
American Idol launched in 2002 with hosts Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul. The series had huge ratings during the first half of its life but has steadily sunk in the second half. Fox now recognizes that it’s time for Idol to end (“It was time to bring the show to an end,” Fox admitted on a conference call this morning), and we applaud their decision.
The most reason season of Idol, the 14th, is currently airing on Fox. The season launched with 11.2 million viewers but the most recent episode which aired May 6 only pulled 6.93 million.
It’ll be interesting to see how the ratings of NBC’s hit singing competition show The Voice change after Idol ends. Will Idol devotees move over to The Voice as they search for a singing competition fill? In the mean time, we expect Idol to receive a little ratings boost as long lost fans make their way back to watch one more round.
Will you miss ‘American Idol’ when it leaves television next year?
Season 15 launches in January. On the aforementioned conference call this morning, Fox execs said that “there’s a lot of enthusiasm” from old Idol talent about coming back to say farewell. We’d love to see an episode judged by Cowell, Abdul, and Jackson.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.