“American Idol” is packing up Hollywood and heading across the country.

The long-running singing competition is relocating its production from Los Angeles to the greater Atlanta area ahead of its milestone 25th season. Fremantle, which co-produces the series alongside Sony Pictures Television’s 19 Entertainment, confirmed the major move to Deadline.

A primary driver behind the exit is Georgia’s lucrative tax incentive program, which offers up to a 30% tax credit for unscripted and reality television productions that spend a minimum of $500,000 in the state, the news outlet reported.

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Unscripted production in Los Angeles has plummeted 62.7% against its five-year average, according to FilmLA. Disney

A primary driver behind American Idol’s exit from Los Angeles is Georgia’s lucrative tax incentive program. GC Images

First launched on Fox in 2002, the show spent 15 seasons as a ratings powerhouse in Los Angeles, driven by host Ryan Seacrest and original judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson.

Even in its fatigued 15th and final Fox season, the show averaged a 3.0 rating among adults 18–49 and 11.5 million viewers, according to the Billboard.

After going off the air for two years, ABC revived the competitive series in March 2018 with Seacrest and a judge lineup featuring Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and Carrie Underwood.

The high-profile relocation marks the latest blow to unscripted TV production in Los Angeles, an industry segment that has been suffering for a prolonged period.

According to FilmLA data reported by The Wrap, local unscripted production dropped sharply in the second quarter, with reality TV shoot days plunging 40% year-over-year.

While overall television filming saw a quarter-over-quarter uptick, unscripted production in Los Angeles has plummeted 62.7% against its five-year average, according to the organization.

The departure follows a similar exit earlier this year in May, when Fox Entertainment Studios announced it would no longer produce “The Masked Singer.”

The singing competition most recently wrapped up its 24th season on May 11, 2026. Disney

Eureka Productions took over the series and moved operations to New Jersey to take advantage of the state’s tax incentive program, which offers a 30% tax credit on qualified expenses and up to 40% on specific studio projects.

Although California recently expanded its tax incentive program under AB 1138 to cover unscripted series for the first time, the state restricted eligibility strictly to large-scale competition shows with per-episode budgets exceeding $1 million.

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California has seen a notable corporate exodus in recent years with major companies like Tesla, Chevron, Oracle, CBRE, and Palantir setting up their base in another state.

Paramount CEO David Ellison is also actively evaluating a prospective movie and TV studio in Texas amid intensifying antitrust dispute over his plans to merge Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion mega deal.

A preliminary report by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. (LAEDC) warns that Paramount’s full corporate exit from California could cost the state between 28,990 and 57,980 permanent jobs, $10.6 billion to $21.2 billion in annual economic output and up to $1.17 billion in lost annual tax revenue.

Ellison has given regulators an October 1 deadline to enter settlement talks. If they refuse, he plans to move Paramount’s headquarters to states like Texas (eyeing Austin), Tennessee, or Georgia.