American Idol contenders will no longer hear the signature “you’re going to Hollywood!” phrase. According to The Los Angeles Times, after 25 years in Los Angeles, the long-running reality singing competition is pulling up stakes and moving across the country to Atlanta for its next season, which will premiere in early 2027.
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Show producer Fremantle confirmed to the paper that Idol‘s upcoming 25th season will be filmed in the Atlanta area at a time when Los Angeles has seen the level of productions in the city long associated with everything showbiz dropping despite Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signing a major tax incentive bill aimed at keeping businesses in the state.
Just this week, Newsom signed Senate Bill 180, which extends the state’s business incentive program, CalCompetes, through fiscal year 2032-33 after it was scheduled to sunset next year. According to the Governor’s office, since 2019, more than $1.8 billion in tax credits have been awarded to 271 businesses through the CalCompetes Tax Credit Program. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the Idol flight came after Newsom signed a bill last year that increased the cap on film and TV tax credit incentives from $330 million to $750 million a year.
Idol‘s first 15 seasons (2002-2016) on Fox were based in Los Angeles and when it returned to the air in 2018 on ABC it continued to film in the city until crowning its latest winner in May of this year. The continued exodus of production in L.A. has worried film workers and union leaders as the state struggles to compete with other states offering even more lucrative tax credits, the Times reported.
In the meantime, TV production in the L.A. area was down 27% in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, mainly because of fewer reality TV shoots. As an example, earlier this year Fox’s The Masked Singer announced plans to leave its Fox lot in L.A. to travel across the country to New Jersey thanks to the Garden State’s more attractive tax credits. In addition, long-running ABC competition series Shark Tank is also pulling up stakes to move to Atlanta from the Sony lot in Culver City, Calif.
Idol has provided jobs for hundreds of workers each season for the past two decades, but the allure of Georgia’s generous tax incentives — including up to a 30% tax credit for reality TV productions that spend at least $500,000 in the state — has drawn a number of productions there, in part because, unlike California, the Peach State’s tax program includes provisions covering compensation for actors, producers, directors, screenwriters and other key production workers.
THR reported that in late July the Georgia film office reported that 280 productions had filmed in the state over the last fiscal year, including such major shoots as a Superman sequel and TV series including Will Trent and Chad Powers. Last year, Idol appeared to telegraph the move by moving the annual Hollywood Week to Nashville, Tenn., home of two of its three judges, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan.
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