ABC has revived American Idol for a 2018 return, but FOX isn’t a fan of the “extremely fraudulent” resurrection.
Speaking to reporters, FOX chief Dana Walden admitted the network hoped to revive idol, ideally in 2020, to quell the cancellation backlash, but slammed the reality show’s swift comeback at ABC:
“Yes it feels bad knowing it’s coming back on another network. It’s obviously a tough one for us. We loved ‘American Idol.’ It’s so connected to the Fox brand. It was associated with a tremendous amount of success for everyone involved for 15 years.”
“[Freemantle] were determined to get this show back on the air as quickly as possible. We spent about $25 million sending a clear message that it was the farewell season. It felt to us it would be extremely fraudulent to bring the show back quickly, that fans would not appreciate being told one thing and then having the show brought back right away.
She added:
[FremantleMedia parent RTL Group] lost revenue from not having this show on in the U.S. — that’s meaningful when you’re running a public company. And all of a sudden we were made aware of conversations with ABC to bring the show back in 2018, which, again, would put it off the air for one season. And we again felt like this is way too soon. We tried to engage Fremantle in conversations about bringing it back in 2020 which is when we thought would be an appropriate amount of time off the air, and could give the producers and creators the opportunity to make some changes that could present the next generation of Idol, and they really just weren’t interested in that. They wanted it back on the air and thought ABC was a good opportunity.”
Concluded Walden:
“We thought it was too early to bring the show back. All of our research and all of our fan forums supported that notion. We did not see the fan excitement and enthusiasm for the show to come back that Fremantle did. We just had a different set of facts.” Fremantle Media had no immediate comment.
Are you pleased American Idol is coming back? Will you follow the show to ABC?
Stay tuned as we continue to monitor the renew/cancel status of American Idol Season 17…
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