With American Idol set to make a comeback next year on ABC, the series’ original home, Fox, is cooking up a new singing competition show to take its place.
Variety reports the Fox’s new series will come from Israeli producer and distributor Armoza Formats. The deal has not been finalized yet, but development kicked into high gear once American Idol was signed over to ABC in May, just two seasons after the show had ended its run on Fox.
This new series will put a different spin on the singing competitions we have already seen. The four finalists will be chosen in the premiere episode, with new contestants challenging them week after week to steal one of the four spots.
The Armoza project was originally called, based on its premise, The Final Four, a title that has since been scrapped to avoid confusion with the NCAA’s college basketball tournaments. The new name has yet to be announced.
American Idol ran on Fox for a staggering fifteen seasons, finally cancelled due to suffering ratings in 2016. Before this decline, the show had held a spot as TV’s highest-rated series for eight consecutive seasons starting in 2003.
ABC’s deal to resurrect Idol came as a surprise to many, but makes sense when you consider the success of NBC’s The Voice. While ABC dipped its toes into the singing competition pool this summer with Boy Band, the series has had poor ratings thus far. The Idol reboot shows more promise, with Katy Perry already attached as a judge, and advanced talks with Ryan Seacrest to return as host.
Fox has struggled to find a replacement for Idol since its cancellation, but with its impending reboot on ABC, along with The Voice on NBC, the network needs this new unnamed Armoza project more than ever. An airdate has yet to be announced, but Variety speculates that a January debut would work best in its favor, to compete with the spring 2018-bound American Idol.
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