'American Idol' Teases First Look for out of This World Milestone Season 20

By Michael Hein

American Idol Season 20 is just a few weeks away, and from the looks of the new key art it is out of this world. ABC released a new promo for American Idol on Tuesday showing judges Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and Katy Perry planting their flag on the moon, along with host Ryan Seacrest. Hopefully, this is a sign that Season 20 will take the show to new heights.

The key art features Richie holding an American Idol flag which is inexplicably flapping even though there is no wind on the moon. The flag pole is topped with a microphone, and Richie has one foot planted on a moon rock in triumph. Meanwhile, Seacrest holds a space helmet under his arm, but all four seem perfectly comfortable in their formal attire up in space. Richie and Perry wore matching sequined outfits while Seacrest and Bryan wore black.

The imagery lends itself to the new logline, which says: "Ready to discover the best talent in the universe." According to a report by PEOPLE, this theme will carry over into the new season with a new feature called the "platinum ticket." Judges will hand out a platinum ticket in each city during auditions. They will be visiting Nashville, Austin and Los Angeles.

Thankfully, hopefuls didn't need to travel to those cities to be considered. Back in August, the judges collaborated on a video where they revealed that contestants can now submit audition tapes digitally.

"American Idol is coming back y'all, and this year is the 20th year and it's time to find the next superstar," they said. "And you may be wondering where you can audition for American Idol this year. Literally from anywhere, just keep it clean because even though they're virtual auditions, there are producers. Speaking of clean, it's almost time for Idol Across America, so go audition now. You can even audition from your bathroom!"

For some fans, all of this big news is overshadowed by the sadness of losing on-air mentor Bobby Bones. The reality star revealed that he is not returning to American Idol in an Instagram Q&A earlier this month. He wrote: "And some of you noticed I'm not in the Idol promos this season. My contract with my new network won't let me do another show right now. Love Idol, btw. Was a great 4 years."

Bones said that he was filming his mysterious new show in Costa Rica, but said that he could not reveal more details about it at the time. He said he would fill fans in "as soon as I can ... The network hasn't even announced the show yet. So I'm going to chill for a bit. But it's a really good show."

Hopefully, American Idol will be able to get by without him. The show's monumental Season 20 premieres on Sunday, Feb. 27 on ABC. It can also be streamed on Hulu.

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