‘American Idol’ Season 25 coming to Georgia, though details remain scant
ABC’s “American Idol” is coming to Georgia for its 25th season.
The reality competition show popped up last week on the Georgia film office website, which tracks active TV and film productions in the state.
A spokesperson for Fremantle, one of the producers of the show, confirmed the move to Georgia to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday but didn’t reveal what parts of “Idol” will actually film in the state.
Since its inception in 2002 on Fox, “Idol” has produced its live shows in Los Angeles. Until last year, the earlier Hollywood Week episodes were also filmed there.
As audiences splinter and costs go up, production companies are looking to save money. The California TV and film tax credit system recently expanded to include large-scale reality competition shows, but the state’s capped program has rewarded credits to only one reality show to date: “Schooled!” an upcoming science-oriented reality competition show on Netflix.
Deadline.com reported that “Idol” did not qualify for the California tax credit. A spokesperson at the California Film Commission said in an email, “We are not able to comment on any projects that are not officially approved in the Tax Credit Program.”
Regardless, 19 Entertainment and Fremantle, the co-producers of “American Idol,” will save significant money moving even parts of production to Georgia, which has its own generous film and tax credit program. Georgia offers breaks for both scripted and unscripted programming and has no cap.
While Georgia has struggled lately to land sizable scripted films and shows as other states and countries amp up their credits, it has become a mini-haven for unscripted game shows and comparable fare. ABC’s “Shark Tank,” “Celebrity Family Feud” and “Press Your Luck” and Fox’s “The 1% Club” have all moved from Los Angeles to metro Atlanta since 2025.
Los Angeles also lost Fox’s “The Masked Singer” to New Jersey for the same reason.
Coming home
It doesn’t hurt that the “Idol” on-air cast all hail from the South. Host Ryan Seacrest is from Dunwoody. Judge Luke Bryan grew up in Leesburg. Fellow judge Lionel Richie enjoyed his childhood in Tuskegee, Alabama. And Carrie Underwood, former “Idol” winner and judge since Season 23, came from Checotah, Oklahoma, and now resides in Nashville.
Deadline reports that studio space has not been finalized.
Several game shows including Fox’s “Celebrity Weakest Link” with Jane Lynch and the syndicated shows “The Perfect Line” with Deborah Norville and “Flip Side” with Jaleel White have filmed at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville. Trilith recently opened Trilith Live, a 530,000-square-foot live entertainment complex and media production hub which is suited for unscripted shows. “Shark Tank” this spring used studio space at Tyler Perry Studios.
The evolution of ‘Idol’
“Idol” in some ways remains the same show it was when it became a surprise hit in 2002, taking unknown singers, providing them a platform to perform in front of live audiences on a big stage and crowning a winner based on a popular vote.
But how “Idol” finds potential singers has changed. Fromn the 2000s into the 2010s, the show relied heavily on in-person cattle-call auditions in multiple cities. The show came to Atlanta several times over the years using venues such as the Georgia Dome and Gas South Arena. Season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken, Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino and future Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson all auditioned in Atlanta.
By the mid-2010s, social media had taken over and “Idol” began relying more heavily on finding talent on YouTube or online audition videos. After Fox canceled the show in 2016 and ABC picked it back up in 2018, “Idol” eventually dropped cattle-call auditions entirely and now exclusively hunts for singers online. (Singers from Georgia are being asked to register for “live virtual auditions” on Sept. 16.)
Producers now fly contestants they like to specific cities to meet the three celebrity judges in October or November of each year. “Idol” in recent years would go to three different cities but to save money last year, they held all initial televised auditions in Nashville.
For the first 23 seasons, “Idol” also sent those who received a golden ticket to Hollywood. But in 2026, all 127 singers stayed in Nashville for what was redubbed Music City Takeover. There, the judges trimmed that number down to 30.
Those 30 then flew to a Disney resort in Hawaii for more performances. The 20 survivors in the spring came to Los Angeles for seven live shows, with winner Hannah Harper crowned on May 11.
Once the hottest show
Two decades ago, “Idol” was the hottest show in America, frequently drawing 25 to 30 million a week, but its popularity has waned in the intervening years.
This past season drew an average of 5.1 million live viewers on the network, according to Nielsen, up 23% from 2025. It’s the second-most popular show on ABC for live viewing only behind an ascendant “Dancing with the Stars.”
Incorporating streaming over 35 days, “Idol” was the 53rd most popular show across all platforms with 7.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings compiled for Variety. It dropped to 11th place among ABC shows when streaming is included behind shows like “Will Trent,” “High Potential” and “Abbott Elementary.”
“Idol” is also no longer the star-generating machine it was in its early years when Kelly Clarkson, Underwood and Hudson became big names. Recent winners have not been able to parlay their victories into sizable careers.
The show also gets less airtime. At its peak, Fox ran more than 40 episodes of “Idol” a season over five months, sometimes three hours a week.
When ABC brought “Idol” back in 2018, it aired 19 episodes, each mostly two hours in length. That was trimmed to 16 last year. The number of live shows has remained the same at ABC at seven.
“Idol” this past season ran weekly for four months from January through May.