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At American Idol, the show must go on. The reality singing competition is continuing with its current season despite the coronavirus pandemic, and is getting creative with how to resume filming while practicing social distancing. This season first premiered Feb. 16, before the outbreak forced the country to shutdown, and now American Idol will continue to film its live shows remotely beginning April 26, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Contestants in the Top 20 will all perform from their own homes, and judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan will conference in, along with in-house mentor Bobby Bones. Longtime Idol host Ryan Seacrest will join from his home in Los Angeles. Despite the changes in production, viewers will still be able to vote for their favorite singers.
Prior to the shutdown, ABC had taped enough American Idol footage to last through April 5, when the show’s top 21 contestants were revealed. Fans worried that the show would not be able to resume with live performances from the Top 20 contestants because of social distancing restrictions, but Katy Perry hinted that a solution was in the works to keep American Idol in production. In a Facebook Live chat April 12, Perry told fans, “We’re going to all have to be really creative. And you’ll just have to be tuning in to that creativity that we are probably going to create from our individual homes. We’ll see how this goes.”
American Idol‘s remote-filming tactic is similar to what NBC tried last weekend with its April 11 episode of Saturday Night Live, where it had cast members create content from their own homes and film segments like Weekend Update remotely on a conference video call.
Last week, ABC aired American Idol: This Is Me, a special that looked back on the Top 21 throughout the competition and featured unseen footage and performance recaps. The second half of This Is Me will air on Sunday (April 19) at 8/7c on ABC, during the American Idol time slot.
