EXCLUSIVE: ABC is ruining the narrative that long-running reality competition series are declining, highlighted by the recent success of Season 34 of Dancing with the Stars.
American Idol also received a huge boost with its last season; Season 23 of the show (the eighth season to air on ABC after it moved from Fox) received 26 million votes in its finale, breaking its own record and more than doubling the previous season’s finale.
The talent competition is now exploring new ways to exploit this and has come up with a new way for fans to vote: using social media.
This comes on top of a number of other changes planned for the upcoming season, which moves to a new night on ABC, eschewing Hollywood for Nashville and introducing a new round set in Hawai‘i.
During the middle of Season 23, as the show is opening up auditions for next season, showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick sat down with her team to figure out what’s next.
“There’s always an immense amount of pressure regarding how we level up. What do we do that’s different? We don’t know who is going to come across our door, but we want to use the momentum of last season to bring in new people and fire them up,” she told Deadline.
Michaels Wolflick said that she has wanted to do social media voting for the last five years, something that no other major entertainment show has done.
“We have to meet the audience where they are. Back in 2002 when the show began, texting was the new hot thing. We also have to meet the technology where it is, as well. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to vote for their favorites, weigh in from their couch with their second screen, in real time,” she said.
Part of it is reaching a younger crowd. “If we can get Gen Alpha and Gen Z to weigh in a little bit more in the easiest way possible, that’s very exciting. It could tip the scale. Trends are always different,” she added.
ABC and Fremantle, which produces the show, are still finalizing some of the specific details around the logistics of social voting. For now, there’ll still be text and phone voting. “Maybe in three years’ time, we’ll have a conversation where we’re just doing social voting. But right now, you want to ease the audience into something new,” she said.
American Idol will premiere on a new night this season. The show premieres on January 26 – a Monday. ABC is eschewing the traditional Sunday night launch for scheduling reasons. It is also moving it earlier than recent seasons – Season 23 premiered at the start of March, although it did previously premiere in January during its run on Fox.
“The beginning of the year is awards season and a lot of these award shows are on Sunday nights. You’re up against the Grammys and the Super Bowl. Let’s see what happens on Monday,” she said.
The show, which is hosted by Ryan Seacrest with Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood as judges, is going all in on Nashville this season.
Auditions took place in November at Belmont University, the first time that it has done auditions in only one location. Last season, for instance, featured auditions in New York, LA and Nashville. “That’s a risk,” said Michaels Wolflick. “We’re not having different rooms to cut to, is that a problem? We don’t know until we do it. I love that there’s something exciting about it. Even if it’s a failure, it’s still an adrenaline rush to try something new. It did work out, though.”
Hollywood Week is also moving to Music City (or Nashvegas, as many have dubbed the Tennessee city).
Hollywood Week happens after the auditions and this year it took place immediately after it had chosen the lucky singers. “It’s Hollywood Week: Music City Takeover. Hollywood Week is IP at this point, just like American Idol is,” she said. “The momentum of getting through, getting a golden ticket, making it to Hollywood in the past has been maybe sometimes months. There was a momentum that I wanted to experiment with. The music industry in Nashville is just as strong as it is in LA, too. It is a hub and a dream for people to go to.”
The fish out of water element of Hollywood Week has now been replaced with a new round in Hawai‘i.
Dubbed the Ohana Round, the three-episode run will be filmed at the Disney-owned Aulani resort. The top 30 hopefuls will perform for a group of “industry tastemakers” including artists Loren Gray, Anthony Gargiula, Cheryl Porter and Kelly Sutton, social media stars Kaniyia Brown, Terry McCaskill and Evan Ross Katz and Rolling Stone editor Shirley Halperin, as well as their fellow finalists, two family members and friends. By the end of this round, there will be 20 contestants left.
“The judges have the power right all the way up to America’s Vote of who they want to put through and I thought it’d be interesting to do some sort of focus group before they get to America’s Vote to inform the judges of who people are responding to,” she said. “The judges will comment, and at the end, each of the groups will pick their favorite person. Those three people will get the platinum ticket. Back in the day, Kris Allen would have been the pick of the people and Adam Lambert probably would have been the industry pick. I’m super curious who the [potential] Idols are going to pick because they can’t vote for themselves.”
American Idol has had a remarkably consistent judging panel since moving to ABC and the days of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson; Bryan and Richie have been on since Season 16 (or Season 1 on the Disney-owned network). Katy Perry also featured for seven straight seasons, eventually being replaced by Carrie Underwood, who won the fourth season in 2005.
“[Carrie] was a totally different beat. We could have found a personality similar to Katy. In the music world, there are plenty of female pop singers who would have brought a zaniness, whereas we went completely other way. American Idol bringing Carrie on was the first time globally on Idol that a former winner had come on the panel. She has such a different perspective. She’s honest, she can’t lie and I think she really came into her own by the time the live shows hit. She believes in the show, she’s always thanked American Idol at all of her concerts and [enjoys] the opportunity to give that to budding new artists.”