ABC will once again use the Oscars to give a platform to one of its regular series.
The network has scheduled a preview of American Idol to air after the Academy Awards on March 2, a week ahead of the show’s official season premiere on March 9. The preview will air at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT following the live Oscar telecast.
It will not, however, be a full-blown episode of Idol, which usually run two hours. Instead, the half-hour preview will give viewers a first look at new judge Carrie Underwood — whose season four victory on Idol kickstarted her music career — and a few of the auditions from the early rounds of the competition.
Underwood is taking the judge’s seat vacated by Katy Perry, who departed Idol at the end of last season after seven years (the show’s entire run on ABC to that point). Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie are returning as judges, and Ryan Seacrest continues as host.
Underwood, incidentally, has also joined the lineup of performers for ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, getting the spot just before the Times Square ball drops at midnight. Megan Moroney, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Lenny Kravitz, Teddy Swims, Tinashe, Cody Johnson and Thomas Rhett are also slated to perform during the evening-long special.
As it did this year, ABC will begin its 2025 Oscar broadcast at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, fitting the entire show into primetime and leaving room for the Idol preview before local newscasts in most of the country. (The network will also re-air the awards in primetime for stations in the Pacific time zone.)
In March, ABC aired an episode of Abbott Elementary following the Oscars, to good effect: The show brought in 6.9 million viewers, its largest same-day audience ever and more than double its season average.
