American Idol – Copyright ABC
Netflix UK has secured even more American competition shows with American Idol season 18 coming to Netflix in the region weekly. Here’s what you need to know, including how many episodes, why Netflix has picked it up, and other Netflix regions’ availability.
Netflix in the United Kingdom has made a string of Netflix Original acquisitions over the past few years, including getting weekly episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and America’s Got Talent (both normal and special seasons).
American Idol has been in the United Kingdom before, with ITV carrying the show in a similar manner to Netflix. That network is, of course, the home of Britain’s Got Talent, The X-Factor, and The Voice, so it’s safe to say they have the market cornered.
American Idol used to air on FOX before getting canceled and subsequently being revived back in 2017 by ABC.
When do new episodes of American Idol come to Netflix?
Unlike most international deals with Netflix UK, we won’t be getting new episodes the day after the airing of the new episodes. Instead, we’ll have to wait two days for new episodes to drop.
ABC airs new episodes in the United States on Mondays, and the episodes then come to the United Kingdom on Wednesday mornings at 8 AM GMT.
There’ll be around 19 weeks of new episodes in store with the first five consisting of the auditions before getting whittling down the contestants until the final two.
Sadly, previous seasons are not included in this new distribution deal, only new seasons going forward.
Weekly episodes American Idol
Will American Idol be on Netflix elsewhere?
Nope, as with America’s Got Talent, only Netflix in the United Kingdom is getting weekly drops of the show, and we’ve checked 29 other regions to make sure that’s the case.
Why only the United Kingdom? The UK loves its talent shows despite a definite sense of fatigue of the genre set in.
Will American Idol come to Netflix in the US?
Sadly, as with the other talent shows from America Netflix UK has picked up, we don’t believe American Idol will be coming to Netflix. Instead, the revival seasons are exclusively available on Hulu in the US for streaming.
The deal with Hulu brings episodes even faster than to Netflix UK, which shouldn’t be a surprise given ABC’s parent company Disney owns a huge stake in Hulu.
Will you be watching American Idol on Netflix? Let us know down below.
