ABC Airing ‘American Idol’ Finale Instead of ‘The Crossing’ on Monday Night

ABC will not air an episode of The Crossing on Tuesday night due to the American Idol season finale.

The network is airing the two-hour Idol episode from 9-11 p.m. ET, which means it will take over the sci-fi series‘ 10 p.m. ET slot.

The shift is most likely due to ABC wanting a one-two punch of Dancing With the Stars and Idol finales. The Crossing is also a lower priority for the network, as they have decided to end the show once its first season concludes.

The rebooted American Idol features host Ryan Seacrest and judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. The judges and voting viewers have narrowed the field to three contestants: Caleb Lee Hutchinson, Gabby Barrett and Maddie Poppe.

The Crossing will return on May 28 with a new episode, “The Long Morrow.”

According the ABC synopsis, “a grisly discovery in camp leads to the arrest of an unlikely suspect, and a risky move by Jude (Steve Zahn) may be the only way to expose the truth. Meanwhile, Reece (Natalie Martinez) finds herself captive, and Rebecca (Simone Kessell) falls under the sway of Naomi (Josette Canilao) in a way that could change everything.”

The Crossing is winding down its sole season, but creators Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie had much more in mind for the show, as they told PopCulture.com ahead of the pilot episode.

“It’s fairly sprawling and there’s probably a version we could have done of the pilot where we held back an entire world, but the fact is we have the refugee world, we have the sheriff world, we have the town world, we have the [Department of Homeland Security] world,” Dworkin explained. “It felt like all of those elements needed to be set up to some satisfactory degree in the pilot. That gave us something that was packed with story.”

However, it appears the team behind The Crossing prepared to go out with a bang. The show’s 12-episode season order was ideal for the creators, who did not want to wear out its welcome.

“We’ve been on shows, serialized shows that do 22, and you get a couple seasons in and you’re kind of running on fumes, and the audience starts to hate you because they can sense that you’ve burned out your story a little prematurely,” Dworkin said. “It’s definitely helpful.”

When it is not an off-week, The Crossing airs Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: ABC / Craig Sjodin