‘American Idol’ Probably Won’t Be Back By 2018

Although the once trend-setting reality competition show, American Idol, which ended in April of last year, was in talks for a reboot, it seems the new version wont be back on television – at least, not by 2018.

After the completion of its 15th season, American Idol seemed to be headed off the air for good – the final season was titled, The Farewell Season. Yet, several months after the final episode, Idol‘s owners were in conversations with NBC about the reboot, after Idol originally aired on FOX.

The hope behind NBC’s offer was to break up seasons of The Voice with a season of Idol, undoubtably the inspiration behind their singing-based reality competition show.

CORE Media Group and Freemantle Media co-own Idol and can’t decide if they want to take NBC’s deal or not. The biggest hold up: Freemantle also owns America’s Got Talent and CORE is worried that Idol wont get primetime treatment while Talent will.

Whether or not a reboot of Idol is necessary so soon after it went off the air, doesn’t seem to be a question either Freemantle or CORE is asking. The only question is, what will be the deal that best suits both owners.

Most interesting about this fight between owners is that CORE filed for bankruptcy back in 2016 largely because of the losses generated by Idol. If their reluctance about the reboot was tied to Idol‘s little potential for financial gain, it may be more understandable. Instead, CORE seems to be focused on finding the best deal, with the reboot very much being part of it.