Every once in a while, a TV network will pick up another’s canceled show in an attempt to revive it for more seasons since often times it was cut short and fans crave more. While one network sees it as a failed product or that it simply ran its course, another sees more potential.
Comedy Central brought back Fox’s Futurama for more seasons after it had been off the air for 8 years. And Netflix has revitalized several shows from other networks like Veronica Mars, Arrested Development and The Killing.
These networks, or streaming services, often buy the rights to certain shows because they believe it was ended too abruptly and there’s still money to be made. And that’s certainly the case with ABC bringing back an enormously popular Fox show.
MSN reports:
“ABC is the official new home of ‘American Idol.’
The broadcaster revealed Tuesday morning on “Good Morning America” that it has given a greenlight to a 16th season of the long-running music competition.
The series order ends not only a process that saw multiple networks explore bringing the reality franchise to their air, but also a briefer-than-anticipated absence for a show that just a year ago celebrated its ‘farewell season.’
‘GMA’ anchors Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos offered few details about the planned revival. They said details such as the show’s host and judging panel were still to be determined, and there’s no word yet about a showrunner.
‘America, get ready for the return of a bigger, bolder and better-than-ever ‘Idol,’ ‘Disney/ABC TV Group president Ben Sherwood promised.”
It’s rare that a show this big would be changing networks. In fact, a show of this size and magnitude changing hands has never happened before.
And many are curious if Ryan Seacrest will return to his hosting duties.
But Seacrest just moved from Los Angeles to New York City, and it was just announced he would be co-hosting Kelly Ripa’s Live with Kelly and Ryan. Still, he could do both.
Yahoo TV explains how that might work:
“The predominant theory seems to be that the new-look ‘Idol’ would involve one live episode per week, and probably on a Sunday evening. Seacrest would then be able to take a red eye back East for “Live” and his radio show on Monday morning.
In theory, he could also pull ‘Idol’ off on a Friday, though that’s cutting it much closer and it feels unlikely that ABC would banish its big splash to the worst weeknight for television.
If Ripa was down to pre-tape every Friday show — which they do from time to time — the same argument could be made for scheduling the new “Idol” on Thursday nights.
When asked by TheWrap, a network rep was mum on whether Seacrest is even a candidate to reprise the role, and his reps did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
ABC also did not immediately respond to our request for clarification on whether Seacrest’s “Live” deal was part of an overall umbrella agreement with the network.
Kicking off the season, Fox’s ‘American Idol’ would film its Audition Round in seven cities. They mostly shot on the weekends to accommodate Ryan’s popular radio show. When he had to stay in town for a while, he was usually able to find a local radio station from which to work.
The always punctual Seacrest would typically get to the auditions at 8 a.m. local time to film the opening scene — you know, the helicopter shot with all the excitable and starry-eyed locals.
That setup took about an hour, a person familiar with the former iteration’s schedule told TheWrap. Seacrest would then put in a few more hours of on-camera stuff each day, and he always had some press commitments to fulfill as well — especially during the groundbreaking show’s historic heyday.
During the Judge’s Round, Seacrest would generally be on site and working most of the day, though he was also able to do pickups later if need be. Those packed days were mostly shot on the weekends as well — especially the last few seasons on Fox — again, as a nod to Seacrest’s radio show responsibilities.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if ABC actually did take it in a completely new and fresh direction by possibly hiring someone completely different and maybe a bit funnier.
But as they say, “If ain’t broke don’t fix it”, and American Idol was one of Fox’s most successful shows.