It used to be the Oscars took up the entire night on ABC.
Not this year.
The network says it will shoehorn in a preview of “American Idol” after the Academy Awards on March 2, 2025.
They say the Oscars will run from 7pm to 10:30pm, followed by the “Idol” special introducing Carrie Underwood as the new judge replacing Katy Perry. The other judges are still Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.
“American Idol” will pick up again a week later on Sunday, March 9th.
ABC is hedging its ratings bets by shoving “Idol” in on the same night as the Oscars. They’re hoping for a ratings boost if the Oscars don’t do well. But ratings stop at 11pm, so on the East and Central coasts it may be a moot point if the Oscars run over their allotted time — and they usually do.
Conan O’Brien is hosting the Oscars, which will likely lean hard on “Wicked” to pull in an audience — not to mention “Gladiator II,” “Moana 2,” and a couple of other blockbusters to mitigate mostly nominations of independent movies.
This is a tad strange of ABC, which you would think should concentrate its attention on the Oscars for the night. But it’s a strange year already.
