AMERICAN IDOL’s famous trip to Hollywood is getting a Georgia-sized detour for Season 25.
“There are singers, then there are IDOLS,” ABC tells hopefuls on its official audition page, but the next group of contestants will chase that title from a new production home.
Fremantle confirmed that the long-running ABC competition will move production from Los Angeles to the Atlanta area for its upcoming season, Deadline reported. The company produces the series with 19 Entertainment, which Sony Pictures Television backs.
The deal is not quite signed and sealed. Fremantle remained in final talks with a studio complex near Atlanta as of Sept. 15, so the exact location could still change before cameras roll.
Season 25 is expected to premiere in early 2027. The production move does not yet settle the show’s other big questions, including whether Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie will all return to the judges’ table.
The Atlanta shift follows a smaller change last season, when AMERICAN IDOL took its post-audition Hollywood Week round to Nashville before returning to Los Angeles for live shows. TV Insider noted that the series had previously worked from Red Studios in Hollywood.
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Money appears to be a major part of the new map. Georgia offers a 20% transferable production tax credit plus a possible 10% promotional uplift once eligible productions meet a $500,000 annual minimum, according to the state’s official incentive guide.
Deadline reported that those terms can cover unscripted and reality television, while AMERICAN IDOL did not qualify for California’s expanded incentive. California added certain large competition series to its program, but eligibility on paper did not translate into a credit for the show.
The departure lands during a difficult stretch for unscripted production in Los Angeles. FilmLA’s second-quarter report counted 4,711 total on-location shoot days, down 12.7% from the same period in 2025, even as television activity improved from the first quarter.
Deadline’s breakdown found that Los Angeles unscripted production logged 40% fewer shoot days than a year earlier and 62.7% fewer than five years earlier. AMERICAN IDOL now joins THE MASKED SINGER, which moved its production from California to New Jersey, among major reality shows chasing a different cost structure.
For contestants, the heart of the series should remain familiar: auditions, hard notes, family tears and the chance to sing for a national audience. Atlanta’s deep music culture may even give the season a fresh local pulse, though the producers have not announced how much Georgia itself will appear on screen.
The relocation could also change the practical rhythm for contestants’ families, who often travel, wait and celebrate through long production days. Those details will come into focus once Fremantle names the studio and ABC sets the season’s calendar.
One detail should not get lost in the business math. A move like this affects the crews, vendors and families who built their lives around Los Angeles production, while creating new work around Atlanta.
AMERICAN IDOL built part of its identity around sending successful contestants to Hollywood. Season 25 will test whether that dream can keep the same spark when the cameras, stages and weekly pressure move more than 2,000 miles east.
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