As ABC prepares to re-launch “American Idol” with Ryan Seacrest and Katy Perry, Fox has ordered a new singing competition to fill the void left by the long-running and hugely successful show.
Titled “The Four,” Fox’s new series will pit four semi-finalists — chosen at the beginning of the series by a panel of “music industry experts” — against the audience, who will submit audition videos vying to replace one of the four on stage. If any of the four are outperformed by a challenger they’ll be replaced the following week.
At the end of the competition, the four left standing will compete against one another and the winner will have the panelists join their team to “help shepherd the winner’s career and be fully invested in making him or her a breakout star.” None of the panelists or hosts have yet been announced.
The announcement comes just months after ABC announced its plans to revive “Idol” just over a year after the show concluded its highly-rated 15-season run on Fox.
Fox co-chairman and CEO Dana Walden revealed shortly after that “Idol” producer FremantleMedia rebuffed the network’s offer to bring back the show after a multi-year hiatus. The network is surely hoping it’s new entry in the singing competition genre will be able to compete with the new “Idol” and NBC’s “The Voice.”
Created by Armoza Formats and produced by ITV Entertainment, “The Four” is executive produced by David George, Adam Sher, David Eilenberg, Jessica Sebastian-Dayeh, Simon Thomas, Becca Walker, David Friedman, Avi Armoza and Nehama Cohen.