When Does ‘American Idol’ 2026 Start? Season 24 Premiere Date

[ad_1] <img width="384" height="216" src="https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/179627_2059_v6_5d1158-e1769291418923.jpeg?resize=384%2C216" class="attachment-hl-384x216-tc size-hl-384x216-tc wp-post-image" alt="When Does 'American Idol' 2026 Start? Season 24 Premiere Date" srcset="https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/179627_2059_v6_5d1158-e1769291418923.jpeg?resize=384%2C216 384w, https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/179627_2059_v6_5d1158-e1769291418923.jpeg?resize=768%2C432 768w, https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/179627_2059_v6_5d1158-e1769291418923.jpeg?resize=1536%2C864 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 670px" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high"/> Picture Credit score: Disney American Idol is returning in early 2026, and this time, audiences will sit via a unique expertise. With adjustments to the voting strategies and even to Hollywood Week, followers of the truth TV competitors sequence are additionally gearing as much as watch Idol alum Carrie Underwood take the judges’ desk once more with Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. So, with out additional ado, all of us want to seek out out the premiere date of season 24.

Hollywood Life has all the main points on Idol’s twenty fourth season under.

What’s Completely different About American Idol in 2026? Briefly, lots is totally different with American Idol now. The voting is likely one of the first main adjustments that followers shall be launched to. Audiences will now have the ability to vote for his or her favourite singers dwell on social media.

Showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick defined to Deadline that they wished to “meet the viewers the place they're,” particularly with the present generations consuming leisure.

“If we are able to get Gen Alpha and Gen Z to weigh in a little bit bit extra within the simplest way potential, that’s very thrilling,” Megan advised the outlet. “It may tip the dimensions. Developments are all the time totally different. We have now to fulfill the viewers the place they're. Again in 2002, when the present started, texting was the brand new sizzling factor. We even have to fulfill the know-how the place it's, as effectively. We need to make it as straightforward as potential for individuals to vote for his or her favorites, weigh in from their sofa with their second display, in actual time.”

The opposite distinction with Idol this time round is that Hollywood Week is going down in Nashville, Tennessee, as a substitute of Los Angeles, California. Pretaped auditions have been held at Belmont College in Nashville. So, there could be a unique ring to the sequence’ well-known catchphrase, “You’re going to Hollywood!”

When Does American Idol Season 24 Premiere? 2026 Launch Date Season 24 of American Idol premieres Monday, January 26, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.

How Can I Watch American Idol Dwell? Followers can tune into American Idol on ABC each Monday beginning in late January 2026. For cable cutters, episodes shall be obtainable to stream on Hulu the following day.