Are you ready to embrace change on American Idol?
Production on the highly-anticipated 23rd season of the long-running reality hit is officially underway.
As Monsters and Critics previously reported, Katy Perry has walked away from her judging gig to focus on her music career.
Of course, her highly-anticipated comeback album hasn’t exactly set the charts on fire, fueling speculation that she’d somehow come crawling back to the ABC series.
However, as revealed earlier this summer, former winner Carrie Underwood is joining the show as the latest judge.
Around the same time, Luke Bryan cast a dark cloud of his future on the show, revealing that Disney had not decided whether he, Lionel Richie, and host Ryan Seacrest would be back.
Thankfully, ABC has released the first cast photo for the next chapter of the series, which is good news for those who just wanted Katy’s vacant seat filled.
American Idol is making some big changes
This marks the series’ first significant change since returning for a reboot on the network in 2018.
Since American Idol has been a reliable performer for the network over the years, making changes wasn’t necessary.
It wasn’t until Katy made the call to walk away that producers entertained switching things up.
Adding Carrie into the mix is an inspired choice because she emerged as the victor of Season 4 in 2005, meaning she knows how these competitions work.
Plus, she’s had continued success in her career since winning.
It’s rare in this climate that talent can stand the test of time, but Carrie has a lot of fans who will follow her anywhere.
Katy was involved in much controversy throughout her time on the show, so it will be interesting to see how Carrie navigates ushering the series into this new chapter.
Ryan Seacrest will pull double duty on American Idol and Wheel of Fortune
Ryan’s return as host is a little bit of a surprise given his commitments to Wheel of Fortune, which has surged in popularity since he took over from Pat Sajak earlier this year.
With the TV industry’s continued challenges, there were concerns that budgetary constraints could lead to more extensive changes for American Idol.
However, the series is a proven performer, so perhaps ABC believes the show will get enough interest with the addition of Carrie to keep the rest of the cast unchanged.
A premiere date has not been determined, but the show typically returns at midseason, which should be the same for the next season.
ABC’s fall schedule is bursting at the seams with unscripted hits like Dancing With the Stars and The Golden Bachelorette, so the network requires a heavy hitter to premiere its midseason schedule.
American Idol is on hiatus at ABC. Stream full episodes on Hulu.