'American Idol' Shot in L.A. for 24 Seasons. It's Moving to Georgia.

Producer Fremantle confirmed the move to the Atlanta area, as California's film credit still leaves most competition shows out.

“American Idol” is moving production from Los Angeles to the Atlanta area, leaving the city where the ABC competition series has shot since 2002. Producer Fremantle confirmed the relocation to The Hollywood Reporter on September 15, 2026.

What's leaving is a standing booking, not a one-off. Season 24 ran 16 episodes, and a returning broadcast order fills a stage calendar in a way a single location feature can't. That's why the outlet called the move a win for Georgia. Fremantle hasn't announced a start date for the Georgia production.

Los Angeles was already losing days before this one. Shoot days in the Los Angeles area fell nearly 13 percent from April through June against the same stretch a year earlier, according to the latest report from the permit office FilmLA. They were down 8 percent from the previous quarter, the outlet reported.

The state's big incentive expansion wasn't written for a show like this. California's film and television tax credit program leaves most unscripted and competition series out of the money. Georgia's transferable credit draws no such line. That gap is why Mayor Karen Bass has been pushing to make competition reality series eligible here in the first place.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year lifting the annual cap on California's film and TV incentives from $330 million to $750 million. Production advocates in state and local offices have called that a first move rather than a cure, the outlet reported. Georgia, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia are all bidding for the same work.

Georgia's film office said in late July that 280 productions shot in the state over the past fiscal year. The list includes Warner Bros.' “Superman” sequel, the series “Will Trent” and “Chad Powers,” and Tyler Perry Studios projects.

That doesn't mean Georgia's been winning everything. The state took in $405 million in production spending in the second quarter of 2026, down 40 percent year over year, per figures from the tracker ProdPro. California drew $1.3 billion in the same quarter, up about 5 percent.

Bass said in July that she's “fighting for an uncapped tax credit” and wants competition reality shows brought into the program. She also promised to keep cutting red tape and lowering permit fees at the local level, calling the industry central to the city's history, culture and economic power, per the outlet.

Widening who qualifies is Sacramento's call, not City Hall's. The credit's rules are set at the state level, and the show that would have tested them has already picked Atlanta.

Source: hollywoodreporter.com, retrieved September 16, 2026.