After American Idol hit its lowest ratings ever this week, many fans are wondering if the series will get canceled after its second season on ABC.
The show, which profiled the remaining eight finalists and featured no new performances, delivered the competition’s first-ever adults 18-49 rating below 1.0, coming in at 0.9. Its 5.4 million viewers were also a series low — counting both ABC and Fox, where it aired for 15 seasons. Idol‘s previous lows were a 1.0 in the demo, set earlier this season, and 5.5 million viewers during season 14 on Fox.
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A report from Radar Online on Wednesday detailed that the show is on the verge of cancellation due to its low ratings.
“No official announcement has been made, but with viewers dropping from 7.2 million to just 6 million, the show is dead,” sources revealed.
Insiders also told the outlet that judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie are even feeling the pressure to get out.
“The producers and crew are already sending out their resumes,” a source said. “Even judge Katy Perry is ready to go back to focusing on her music career.”
Despite the low ratings, a report from earlier in April detailed that Idol draws in more ratings than many other shows that air on its days, Sunday and Monday nights. The only show that did better than it on Sunday, April 7 was the Academy of Country Music Awards. However, the expensive nature of the show leads many to wonder if the ad revenue has been worth the expenses.
During Monday’s episode, the show shined a spotlight on each of the remaining eight contestants, offering a more in-depth glance at each person instead of the limited view fans have previously been offered.
Sunday’s episode saw two contestants, Dimitrius Graham and Uché, go home after all top 10 contestants sang Disney songs for the competition’s Disney night.
Richie told E! News that even though the judges didn’t use their save on either of the two who were eliminated, the elimination “was the right answer.”
“It was the right decision because of the fact that we want to hold [the final judges’ save vote] for something that really comes up,” he said. “It was difficult. We love them so much. It’s family now, but we have to make those decisions.”
“We have to also trust what America is voting for in some ways, because we did save them,” Perry added. “They were voted out last week, and we can’t keep saving them, and also, we just want to hold that vote. We’ll see. Maybe next week, we’ll need it.”
Remaining in the competition as they head into the finale week are Alyssa Raghu, Alejandro Aranda, Laci Kaye Booth, Walker Burroughs, Wade Cota, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Laine Hardy and Madison VanDenburg.
American Idol next airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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