American Idol deserts Los Angeles for Georgia in latest blow to Hollywood production

American Idol, a defining staple of Los Angeles television production for more than two decades, is packing up and moving to Georgia for its upcoming 25th season.

Fremantle, which produces the singing competition alongside Sony Pictures Television-backed 19 Entertainment, confirmed the relocation. The production company is currently in final negotiations with a studio facility in the Atlanta area, although a formal contract has not yet been signed. ABC, which broadcasts the show, declined to comment on the decision.

For the hundreds of crew members, stagehands, and local businesses that rely on the show, the departure is a painful loss. Unscripted and reality television production in Southern California is in a steep decline. According to data from the non-profit tracking group FilmLA, shoot days for unscripted television in Los Angeles fell by 40 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2025. Over the last five years, reality TV shoot days in the city have plummeted by nearly 63 percent.

The flight from California

The exodus is being driven by the simple maths of state tax credits. Georgia offers an attractive tax incentive of up to 30 percent for reality and unscripted productions that spend at least $500,000 in the state. Crucially, Georgia's program allows producers to write off "above-the-line" costs, which include the substantial salaries paid to celebrity talent.

California has tried to fight back, recently expanding its tax credit program to include some unscripted competition shows for the first time. However, the state set a high bar, requiring shows to have a minimum budget of $1 million per episode to qualify. California also explicitly excludes traditional reality programming, game shows, talk shows, and documentary-style series.

Despite its massive scale, American Idol did not qualify for California's tax incentive, according to industry sources.

A nationwide scramble

American Idol is far from the only high-profile show leaving Hollywood behind. Fox recently relocated its popular musical guessing game The Masked Singer from its long-time home on the Fox lot in Los Angeles to New Jersey, which offers tax breaks of up to 40 percent for certain studio projects. Meanwhile, ABC’s venture capital hit Shark Tank is also moving its production from Culver City to Atlanta.

Network executives, facing shrinking broadcast audiences and tighter margins, are increasingly willing to break long-standing local ties. Some game shows have gone even further, moving production across the Atlantic to Britain and Ireland to take advantage of overseas filming incentives.

End of the Hollywood dream?

The move marks a symbolic shift for a franchise built on the dream of "going to Hollywood". For its first 23 seasons, contestants who survived the initial auditions were handed physical golden tickets that served as their entry to Hollywood Week.

Signs of a shift emerged last season, when producers quietly relocated Hollywood Week to Nashville, Tennessee. Now, the main stage production will follow.

Auditions for the 25th season—which will be the show's 10th on ABC—are already underway with regional stops in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Host Ryan Seacrest and judges Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan, and Carrie Underwood are all expected to return when the new season premieres in early 2027, though their contracts are still being finalised.