Controversial HBO Show Finally Gets Premiere Date

After a lot of fanfare and online discourse, HBO has finally announced the premiere date for The Idol. The long-awaited drama will premiere on Sunday, June 4 at 9 p.m. ET. It will run for six episodes and will stream simultaneously on HBO Max.

The Idol was co-created by Sam Levinson, Reza Fahim and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who stars in the series along with Lily-Rose Depp. It is about a young pop star named Jocelyn (Depp) who recently suffered a nervous breakdown and an accompanying career setback. Seeking her inspiration again, she establishes a partnership with Tedros (Tesfaye), a mysterious nightclub financier with a questionable past. Their romantic and professional relationship frightens those around Jocelyn and walks a razor’s edge between daring and damning.

The Idol has been highly anticipated because of its A-list cast and crew. In addition to Tesfaye and Depp, the cast includes Jenny Ruby Jane, Dan Levy, Eli Roth and Hank Azaria, among other well-known faces. It also garners interest thanks to Levinson, who created the HBO hit Euphoria. However, the show has been beset with drama behind the scenes since day one, and many fans are already fixated on those stories.

The Idol began filming in November of 2021 and continued until April 2022 when it went through a major “creative overhaul.” According to a report by Deadline at the time, director and executive producer Amy Seimetz left the project abruptly. Levinson reportedly took over Seimetz’s work as a director and re-wrote the story heavily. Much of the show was then re-shot.

Sources close to the production told IndieWire that Tesfaye was responsible for many of these changes, and his alleged reasoning sparked a lot of conversation online. Insiders said that Tesfaye felt the show was “leaning too much into a female perspective” and portraying his character as a kind of cult leader. Seimetz’s show would have been about a confused starlet grappling with a predatory industry figure, while the re-write by Levinson reportedly reads more like a love story.

Fans will soon see the finished product for themselves, and many will undoubtedly be imagining the alternate version of the show as well. The Idol will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month, then its widespread premiere on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, June 4 at 9 p.m. ET.