‘American Idol’ Season 24 teases its biggest Hollywood Week cut ever with a major format shake-up
'American Idol' is back in session with Season 24 at ABC as Ryan Seacrest returns as host and Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie sit on the judges' panel. This season, with its Idol University theme, began its audition rounds at Belmont University's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville. The audition rounds, in which the most talented aspiring singers are handed the golden ticket to advance to the next stage, are set to wrap up on February 16 and will be followed by the Hollywood Week round. Season 24 has made some exciting changes to this round, which will span three weeks.
When will 'American Idol' Hollywood week air?
Hollywood Week is known for its emotional breakdowns and brutal eliminations, and in October 2025, ABC announced in a press release that the round will be called 'Hollywood Week: Music City Takeover.' They also teased that the upcoming round would see the "biggest" cut in the history of the show, leaving fans on the edge of their seats. ABC stated that there will be one round only, as compared to the earlier multi-day format, "as the hopefuls from all musical genres take the stage for a make-or-break performance, facing the biggest Hollywood Week cut in ‘Idol’ history.” 'Hollywood Week In Music City' Part 1 and Part 2 will air on February 23 and March 2, respectively. It was filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, at Belmont University, rather than in Los Angeles like previous seasons.
The third week will also feature the Ohana Round, which was filmed at the Aulani Resort in Hawaii and will air on March 9. Out of the 30 hopefuls who will compete in this round, 10 will be eliminated, and the remaining 20 will proceed to perform on stage before a live audience. The contestants, mentored by Keke Palmer and Brad Paisley, will perform exclusively for the judges. Another big change is that America will not get to vote for its favorite contestants in this round. The show will also include the point of view of influencers like Kaniyia Brown and Terry McCaskill, the podcast host Evan Ross Katz, music creator Anthony Gargiula, Grand Ole Opry's announcer Kelly Sutton, actress Loren Gray, vocal coach Cheryl Porter, and the co-editor-in-chief of 'Rolling Stone,' Shirley Halperin.
The show's executive producer and showrunner, Megan Michaels Wolflick, discussed the importance of the Ohana round with Billboard on February 9. “We are doing an extra episode here at Aulani and it comes after Hollywood Week and before America’s vote. Hollywood Week is its own vortex through time and space so we wanted to see how we could inform the judges about who is resonating with different groups. It’s a social experiment. In my mind, the Ohana round is the ultimate focus group. You have three groups of people. You have the Idols. You have the families and then we’ve curated a select group of influencers and music and industry experts to come in from their point of view,” she said. Catch the latest episodes of 'American Idol' on Mondays at 8 pm ET on ABC or stream the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
