Creator Sam Levinson and The Weeknd may not come back with a season 2 of The Idol. According to reports, it seems that HBO’s latest show starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd will only have one season. However, the show has only aired its first two episodes so far. Will we see a second season? Let’s find out.
The Idol’s Falling Viewership?
With only two episodes of the first season released so far, The Idol has garnered a lot of criticism for its depiction of young women and lazy dialogue writing. The show premiered its first three episodes at the Cannes Film Festival 2023 and had a lot of mixed reviews from critics. However, its rating has been witnessing a downfall ever since the release of the first episode which aired on June 4, 2023.
According to Variety, Sam Levinson’s The Idol‘s first episode garnered 17% fewer views than Euphoria’s premiere episode. The Waner Bros. Discovery data revealed that Euphoria views were about 1.2 million whereas the Lily-Rose Depp show had 913,000 views on the day of premiere. Moreover, a Page Six source also stated that the show wasn’t meant to be a long-running one.
“This was never meant to be a long-running show, it was always … a limited series.”
Will We See The Idol Season 2?
Lily-Rose Depp’s character, Jocelyn portrays a young pop star who seems to be inspired by Britney Spears‘ early days of her career. Jocelyn crosses paths with Tedros, played by The Weeknd, who is a cult leader. While Lily-Rose Depp’s character finds some sympathy from viewers, Tedros’ scathing character makes it hard for viewers to root for the show. The Weeknd, who is also the co-creator of the show, has been receiving a lot of flak and trolling from fans on social media. However, according to Complex, the singer says he wants the audience to feel “disgusted” by Tedros.
“I wanted to make sure we felt so disgusted by this character. When you think about real-life scumbags, especially brainwashing cult leader types like him, there are so many directions you can go. I went into it, like, ‘Why pull the punches? Why take you down a journey and romanticize him? Let’s just jump right into it. He’s a f*****g scumbag.'”
In a tweet shared by the HBO PR account, it was revealed that there hasn’t been any official discussion regarding The Idol season 2’s fate. The tweet read-
It is being misreported that a decision on a second season of The Idol has been determined. It has not, and we look forward to sharing the next episode with you Sunday night.
It’s not just the show reviews that have made the headlines against the show. Earlier this year, an explosive article by the Rolling Stones revealed that The Weeknd changed the storyline of the show just as it was near its completion citing reasons that it was heading too much into female perspective. According to Rolling Stones, 13 members of the cast and crew of The Idol were interviewed by the magazine who revealed how the show was nearly redone when Sam Levinson was brought on as the show director.
A production member told the magazine that Sam Levinson’s version was like a “rape fantasy” of a “toxic man.”
“It was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better,”
Four sources stated that the earlier version of the show which was directed by Amy Seimetz told the story of a female who fights to reclaim her own agency. Moreover, Levinson’s version was described as offensive calling it “more of a degrading love story with a hollow message that some crew members describe as being offensive.”
However, there have only been three episodes so far which keeps the door open for the show to take some new turns. Will it surprise the audience and leave them wanting for more or is the last we see of The Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s collaboration?
