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Recovery, not quite normal yet.
The season the live competition came back — not fully yet, but enough to feel like the show again.
Seventeen episodes, back in person.
Season nineteen returns the competition to in-person production. Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan came back, and the live rounds resumed on a studio stage. Some audience restrictions remained in place. The production framed the restoration as a win — and compared to what preceded it, it was. The transitional energy kept the season in the shadow of the disrupted year it was recovering from.
The #23 slot.
Slot #23 of 24 in the American Idol Editor's Canon. Season nineteen sits near the bottom because the story it was telling — the return to normal competition after COVID — is a lower standard than the format should aspire to. Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan came back, and the live rounds resumed on stage rather than from contestants' homes. Some audience elements were still limited. The season functioned well enough relative to what preceded it; relative to what the format at its best looks like, the transitional register kept it from earning more. Getting back to normal is a category of television that doesn't age well.