When “American Idol” returns with new episodes next Sunday, it will adapt to these coronavirus quarantine times by taking place for the first time in the homes of the show’s contestants, musicians, judges, mentors and host.
After two weeks of airing clip specials — giving producers enough time to rethink and readjust “Idol” to our new stay-at-home reality — “Idol” returns on April 26 with its final top 20 contestants scattered across the country. Meanwhile, host Ryan Seacrest will anchor the show from his house — where he happens to have the “American Idol” desk from its original Fox run, a relic he has now dug out of the garage and placed in his living room.
“I think we’re about 45 different locations that we’re producing the show from now remotely,” said Trish Kinane, the showrunner and executive producer of “American Idol,” as well as the president of entertainment at “Idol” production company Fremantle. “So it’s quite an operation.”
The “Idol” performance episodes won’t be live, but will now be “live to tape,” in order to give the show’s producers a chance to edit the show into something broadcast-ready. (It also keeps the show’s contestants on an equal playing field, in case someone’s camera fails.) And because of the clip specials that aired over the past two weeks, this year’s final round of “Idol” has been reduced to four episodes — which means there will be multiple eliminations each week. On next Sunday’s episode, the top 20 will be whittled down to 10, for starters.
Given the unusual circumstances, and the fact that the contestants won’t be playing to audiences or in the show’s usual live stage at Los Angeles’ Television City, ABC alternative series senior VP Rob Mills said he believed “four weeks is the right amount of time for these people to perform. It’s going to be more cutthroat because you’re going to see more people eliminated each week than normal. So there is going to be less room for error. And I think that will make it more exciting.”
Kinane said the producers have sent iPhone cameras and lighting kits to all of the contestants, and have also been working with them on how and where to shoot their performances at home.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety