Skip to main content
tiered.tv
ShowsAmerican IdolSeason 17
Aired spring 2019 · The revival finding its settled form

The ABC Footing

Season seventeen returns Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan for a second ABC cycle. The debut novelty has settled into something more functional — a panel with shared shorthand and an audition circuit that knew what it was looking for.

Filmed
Hollywood, California
Premiered
Feb 17, 2019
ABC · Sunday/Monday 8/7c
Episodes
18
Format
Talent competition · nationwide audition · viewer vote
second ABC season — same panel, more settled rhythm
Host
Ryan Seacrest
seventeenth season at the helm
On this page
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 05Adjacent in the canon
  5. 06Also appears in
01The take

The ABC Footing.

The ABC format without the debut buzz — a more grounded run that showed the panel had staying power.
02The shape of the season

A rhythm worth tracking.

Season seventeen is the ABC revival finding its footing after the premiere season's network-debut energy. Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan returned with a season's chemistry behind them, and the audition circuit worked through a field that the new panel understood how to evaluate. The spring competition ran shorter than the Fox era's longest cycles. The novelty had dissipated; what remained was a panel with genuine rapport and a format that held its structure.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #18 slot.

Slot #18 of 23 in the American Idol Editor's Canon. The seasons on either side show what I ranked it against.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
06Also appears in

Cross-references.

American Idol — Editor's CanonEditor's Canon · #18
American Idol S17 — The ABC Footing — tiered.tv