Over the last few months, both NBC and Fox have been fighting to get the rights to American Idol, with NBC hoping to make it a companion series to The Voice and FOX realizing that it never should’ve canceled it in the first place. However, Idol is controlled by two production companies, Fremantle Media and Core Media Group, and while Fremantle was totally on board with giving the show to NBC (because it also owns NBC’s America’s Got Talent), Core didn’t like the idea of turning the former crown jewel of singing competition shows into a sidekick to The Voice. With the two sides unable to agree, the talks fell through.
Now, a new challenger has entered the arena. According to TMZ (via Screen Crush), ABC now wants a piece of the action, and has reportedly made its own bid to take on American Idol. Apparently, ABC is so serious about this that it was willing to shoot the series in New York so Ryan Seacrest could stay on as the host and keep his new job co-hosting Live! with Kelly Ripa. Fremantle still wants to keep it in Los Angeles, though, so American Idol will probably have to go without Seacrest if it does come back.
Also, this news doesn’t necessarily mean that Idol is going to ABC, as TMZ says that Fremantle and Core are still negotiating for some kind of deal with NBC or Fox as well. Basically, American Idol might come back, but nobody knows what network it might be on if it does.