The Show Must Go On: ‘American Idol’ Producers Exploring All Options To Finish Current Season

With the Coronavirus pandemic putting the breaks on live music, sports and television, American Idol producers are scrambling to find a way to air the remainder of the current season. The show, which is already working on a revised schedule due to COVID-19, is scheduled to air the live episodes soon.

During a recent appearance on TMZ Live, longtime American Idol host Ryan Seacrest gave an update on the show and shared that producers are exploring several options to move forward.

“I will tell you, I was on with our executive producer, Trish Kinane, last night. With safety being the priority, that is number one, so looking through that lens, we do want to deliver all of this season,” he explained. “We want to put on these performance episodes. We want to put on the episodes that allow America to vote for their favorites to get to an American Idol winner this season.”

How do they plan to do that given the current circumstances? The answer isn’t that simple.

“We haven’t fully decided,” Seacrest confessed. “We are looking at all of the different options. I think we see the obvious ways that people are using technology now on the air and on social media, so I think we are trying to push the limits of technology and explore any sort of technology that might be available to us to deliver the performance, to deliver the judges comments and to deliver America being able to vote so we make it through the whole season. I am very hopeful that we are gonna be able to do that, actually.”

While producers scramble to solidify plans for the remainder of the seasons, fans will be able to watch the remaining, previously taped performance from the Top 40 contestants on Sunday, April 5 at 8 pm ET/PT.