Highlights
- The Idol, a show created by The Weeknd, explores the dark side of fame and depicts a disturbing love affair between a rising star and a cult leader.
- Despite decent initial viewership, the show received negative reviews from critics and experienced a decline in ratings after the premiere.
- The production of The Idol was plagued with controversy, including a change in directors and creative changes that resulted in discontent among crew members. The show was ultimately canceled after just one season.
Several shows may have stirred some drama along the way, but things had never gotten as bad as they did on The Idol. The HBO series intrigued fans early on with a cast that includes Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Lily-Rose Depp, BLACKPINK’s Jennie Kim, and YouTube star Troye Sivan.
Just a few months after the show released 5 episodes though, HBO quietly confirmed that The Idol is canceled.
‘The Idol’ Is A Show Created By The Weeknd
From the beginning, Tesfaye knew he wanted to do a show about the dark side of fame. During an interview with Variety, The Weeknd discussed how The Idol is “almost educational” and how it strives to show “what comes with being incredibly famous.”
The Idol tells the story of Jocelyn (Depp), a rising star who starts a disturbing love affair with nightclub businessman and cult leader Tedros (Tesfaye).
Now from the start, The Weeknd never set out to make his character likable at all. While speaking with GQ, Tesfaye even goes on to describe his character as “despicable” and “a psychopath.” Tedros is also “calculated” when it comes to his actions but despite the façade he displays for everyone, the character “has nothing, he’s pathetic.”
And while Tesfaye had been working on The Idol from the start, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson was later brought on after director Amy Seimetz exited the project. Since then, Levinson has also been credited as one of the creators behind the show alongside Tesfaye’s producing partner Reza Fahim.
HBO Canceled The Idol After Just One Season...
Now, The Idol may have encountered some bumps during its production, but the show still proved to be a decent performer once it finally premiered. Various reports even indicate that its viewership is fairly similar to other series projects that are not based on a major IP, including HBO’s The White Lotus.
That said, the show’s premiere couldn’t match the ratings that Levinson’s Euphoria achieved when its pilot aired.
And while The Idol premiere was relatively strong, reports also indicated that viewership dipped by the time that HBO released the second episode. HBO also didn’t share any more viewership data as the show went on.
Overall, the reviews haven’t been good too, with the show receiving a very low 19% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. At the same time, it only managed to garner an average audience score of 41%.
After airing five episodes, HBO confirmed that The Idol was ending after just one season despite some indications that a second season was expected. The show’s run was also shortened, ending with five episodes instead of six as originally planned.
The Show Stirred Plenty Of Controversy
Yet, it wasn’t just ratings and reviews that proved to be an issue for The Idol. Behind the scenes, it was also plagued with much controversy and alleged drama. And it seems that all the trouble began while the show was just in pre-production.
HBO first announced that it was ordering The Idol series back in November 2021. Since then, however, it hasn’t offered many updates on the project throughout production. A report from Rolling Stone revealed that sources weren’t even sure if The Idol would be released at one point.
The first signs of trouble became apparent when director Amy Seimetz, who also recently worked with The Weeknd on the music video for The Idol theme song Double Fantasy, abruptly exited the show when it was already around 80 percent done.
Throughout her time on the show, Seimetz was reportedly expected to deliver Euphoria-like results but on a much smaller budget. Following her departure, HBO confirmed that The Idol was undergoing some major creative changes with Levinson taking over as director.
As soon as Levinson signed on, everything already done was scrapped, which caused the show further delay. The Euphoria creator also set out to rewrite everything just as reports emerged that Tesfaye thought the show was leaning too much toward the “female perspective.” That’s essentially when the focus of the show also changed.
While Depp’s Jocelyn remained the star of the show, the character’s arc was changed to reflect a starlet who gets into a turbulent relationship with a cult leader instead of a starlet who fights to make a name for herself in the industry after falling victim to an industry figure.
Several crew members weren’t happy with the show’s new direction with one source even describing it as a “r*** fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better.”
Reports also emerged that Tesfaye became unhappy with Depp’s character becoming the focus of the show and that the creative overhaul happened because he didn’t want the show to be told through a “feminist lens.”
A source also claimed that the singer wanted “one show that was all about him” and that Levinson was more than happy to deliver on that. That said, Tesfaye, who was also rumored to be difficult on set, had too much going on in his schedule, and in the end, the show couldn’t revolve around his character.
And while The Idol is done, Tesfaye continues his foray into Hollywood projects. The musician is set to make his film debut in an untitled film that is also set to star Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan and Emmy nominee Jenna Ortega.
Just like on The Idol, The Weekend is also co-writing the film with producing partner Fahim. Trey Edward Shults, who is directing it, is also writing the movie with them. Ortega is also serving as an executive producer.
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