Fox slams ‘American Idol’ return as show gets revived on ABC
Fox’s head honchos clearly aren’t singing the praises of “American Idol” being revived so quickly after its farewell season.
The network’s TV chairman Dana Walden slammed production company FremantleMedia for bringing back “Idol” and selling it to ABC just one year after Fox heavily invested in a marketing campaign for the show’s final season, Entertainment Weekly reported.
“They were determined to get this show back on the air as quickly as possible,” Walden told reporters during a conference call Monday, according to EW. “We spent about $25 million sending a clear message that it was the farewell season. It felt to us it would be extremely fraudulent to bring the show back quickly, that fans would not appreciate being told one thing and then having the show brought back right away.”
Walden confirmed that Fox did indeed place an offer to bring the reality singing competition back to its airwaves — where it was broadcast for 15 seasons — but ABC ultimately won the bidding war.