The singer experienced vocal issues after performing three songs
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The Weeknd Cancels Los Angeles Concert Mid-Song After Vocal Issues
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How to Watch the 2022 AMAs: Are the American Music Awards Streaming?
Winners are determined by a poll of the public and fans
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The Weeknd Reveals ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Collaboration
"Welcome to the Avatar family," producer Jon Landau wrote
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HBO Denies Accusations of ‘Chaos’ on the Set of ‘Euphoria’ Creator’s New Show ‘The Idol’
"The creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative and mutually respectful working environment," the network said of The Weeknd-created drama
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The Weeknd Previews New Song From HBO Series ‘The Idol’ at Coachella
The highly anticipated series will debut at Cannes next month
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The Weeknd’s HBO Series ‘The Idol’ Gets Summer Premiere Date, New Teaser Channels Britney Spears (Video)
The Lily-Rose Depp and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye-led series will debut at this year's Festival de Cannes
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From Fake Drake to a Fan Frenzy: AI Can Help – Not Just Hurt – the Music Business | PRO Insight
Trying to take down computer-generated tracks is a remix of a failed strategy from the Napster days
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The Weeknd Blames Last Year’s Voice Loss on His Role for ‘The Idol': ‘It Was Terrifying’
The singer recalled the events that happened while filming the upcoming HBO drama during a SoFi Stadium concert
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‘The Muppets Mayhem’ Star Dr. Teeth on Who He’d Tour With: ‘I’d Love to Accompany The Weeknd’
Janice, of course, wants to jam with Taylor Swift
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The Weeknd Dismisses Scathing Rolling Stone Piece About ‘The Idol’ as ‘Ridiculous’
“I’m not playing myself," says the singer and actor of his role as a sinister music mentor in the upcoming HBO series
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‘The Idol’ Creator Sam Levinson Unfazed by Report of Chaos on Set: ‘It Just Felt Completely Foreign to Me’ (Video)
The "Euphoria" writer recalled telling his wife "we're about to have the biggest show of the summer" after reading the Rolling Stone story
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‘The Idol': A Timeline of the HBO Series’ Controversies
The series was blasted as "sexual torture porn" before dividing audiences at Cannes
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‘The Idol’ Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Air?
Here’s a complete guide to the new episodes of HBO's original drama and what time you can watch them
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‘The Idol': Cast and Character Guide to the Divisive HBO Series (Photos)
Lily-Rose Depp and Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye headline the cautionary tale about stardom from "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson
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HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Is ‘Hostile to Feminism,’ Media Experts Say
TheWrap spoke to four leading voices in media, as well as the Parents Television and Media Council, about the impact of the HBO drama series
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‘The Idol’ Star Lily-Rose Depp Says Jocelyn ‘Got What She Needed’ Out of Tedros at the End
The actress talks Sunday night's finale of the controversial HBO series from Sam Levinson, Able "The Weeknd" Tasfaye and Reza Fahim
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‘The Idol’ Canceled After One Season at HBO
“The Idol” will not be returning for a second season at HBO, the network announced Monday.
HBO opted not to renew the controversial music industry drama from “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson, the fifth and final episode of which aired in July.
“The Idol was one of HBO’s most provocative original programs, and we’re pleased by the strong audience response,” a spokesperson for HBO said in a statement. “After much thought and consideration, HBO, as well as the creators and producers, have decided not to move forward with a second season. We’re grateful to the creators, cast and crew for their incredible work.”
Despite controversy surrounding the series from its preproduction to its shocking finale, an individual with knowledge of the decision told TheWrap that conversations about a potential Season 2 have been fluid and its cancellation was not decided until recently.
Cocreated by Levinson, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, “The Idol” follows Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), a pop star who struggles to relaunch her imploding music career after a mental health breakdown derailed her last tour. As she leans on shady nightclub owner Tedros (Tesfaye), whose sinister past threatens to tear down the fragile remnants of her fame, her team’s carefully laid out plans begin to implode.
Despite debuting to 913,000 viewers, “The Idol,” which premiered on June 4, tracked at 3.6 million viewers for the week, outpacing the premiere viewership for the first seasons of HBO’s “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” at the same point in time, which brought in 3.3 million in 2019 and 3 million viewers in 2021, respectively.
Its second episode brought in an audience of 800,000 people across Max and linear HBO telecasts the night of its airing, marking a 12.37% drop in viewership from its premiere. No further information about viewership for its subsequent episodes is known at this time.
Controversy has followed the show both on- and off-screen after Rolling Stone reported in March that filming on the HBO drama was plagued with a “sense of chaos,” as well as production delays and last-minute script rewrites — accusations that HBO denied. The report followed the news that former director Amy Seimetz had exited the project, prompting the network to overhaul the show as Levinson and Tesfaye stepped into the spotlight, leading to significant reshoots and adjustments in cast and crew.
“The creators and producers of ‘The Idol’ have been working hard to create one of HBO’s most exciting and provocative original programs,” HBO wrote in a statement to TheWrap at the time. “The initial approach on the show and production of the early episodes, unfortunately, did not meet HBO standards so we chose to make a change. Throughout the process, the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew. We look forward to sharing ‘The Idol’ with audiences soon.”
The series has also faced its fair share of criticism since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, where its first two episodes scandalized audiences with profanity and nudity some critics considered outrageous.
As its five-episode season went on, feminist media experts drilled down on its messaging and repercussions, with some calling it “hostile to feminism.”
The post ‘The Idol’ Canceled After One Season at HBO appeared first on TheWrap.
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‘The Idol’ Canceled: Inside the Quick, Messy Death of HBO’s Controversial Drama | Analysis
From the first screening of “The Idol” at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the warning signs appeared. Instead of the usually effusive ovation from the black-tie audience at the Palais des Festivals, tepid applause and awkward side-eye greeted the first two episodes of the HBO drama series, as Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled its rebranded streaming service Max in the U.S.
Social media was quick to weigh in with a less subtle verdict about Lily-Rose Depp in barely-there outfits as pop music star Jocelyn in the sexual thrall of Tedros, played by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. The graphic scenes included not just a writhing Depp in front of a camera demanding her sexual freedom, but Tesfaye choking Depp during sex.
“A Pornhub-homepage odyssey starring Lily-Rose Depp’s areolas and The Weeknd’s greasy rat tail,” wrote New York Times’ reporter Kyle Buchanan on X. “Love that this will help launch the HBO Max rebrand, should slot nicely next to House Hunters!”
Things didn’t improve from there. And on Monday, HBO — home of such revered series as “Succession” and “The Sopranos” but also Sam Levinson’s last hit, “Euphoria” — bowed to reality and canceled the show.
“‘The Idol’ was one of HBO’s most provocative original programs, and we’re pleased by the strong audience response,” said the network in a strained statement. “After much thought and consideration, HBO as well as the creators and producers have decided not to move forward with a second season. We’re grateful to the creators, cast and crew for their incredible work.”
That the premium cabler continued to cling to the show’s artistic value spoke volumes about the network’s embarrassment at the cultural black eye it had just inflicted on itself. And to how far on a limb it had gone to promote the show and to cater to its star Tesfaye, including the dumping of director Amy Seimetz’s vision that was apparently considered too feminist, along with multiple completed episodes.
Because (Jocelyn) lacks self-awareness and self-understanding, I think it was doomed from the beginning.”
Joi Carr, English professor at Pepperdine University
“I think it’s really simple what happened,” one individual close to production told TheWrap. “One powerful person decided he wanted to make a different show and everyone said yes. Ultimately it was about corporate people not wanting to stand up — and just saying, ‘Yes, we’ll do whatever you want.’”
One cultural critic said the audience rejected an old-fashioned trope: the objectified heroine as sexy window-dressing.
“Because ‘The Idol’ has a female at the center of the story, and because she lacks self-awareness and self-understanding, I think it was kind of doomed from the beginning,” said Joi Carr, professor of English and film studies at Pepperdine University. “21st century women, especially consumers, and even men, now, want women that have more clarity about who they are even if they’re evil.”
She added: “She [Jocelyn] didn’t have a voice and subjectivity that drove the narrative with her agency, so she was really just dressing in art — flat fetish — and I just don’t think there’s an audience for that right now.”
How did HBO get here?
Trouble surrounded “The Idol” long before its Cannes debut. The series was first announced in November 2021, with “The Girlfriend Experience” director Seimetz attached for all six episodes. A knowledgeable individual told TheWrap that the series co-created by Levinson, Tesfaye and Reza Fahim read in script form as a surreal, “David Lynchian” depiction of Los Angeles and the music industry.
Seimetz exited the show by April 2022, as Levinson stepped in to direct following HBO’s announcement that the project would undergo a major creative overhaul involving significant reshoots and adjusting cast and crew accordingly. The tone went from David Lynch to more “Entourage.”
What lay behind that unusual decision was the network’s hope to mirror the success of “Euphoria” with an edgy, Levinson-produced series, while also building a relationship with Tesfaye, an executive producer on the series as well as a leading member of the ensemble. To make the budget work after dumping the completed episodes, the singer offered his real-life home as the primary filming location, an executive close to the production told TheWrap.
Rolling Stone then upped the “Idol” ante in March 2023, with an explosive report chronicling how the show had been plagued by production delays, costly reshoots, last-minute script rewrites and a “sense of chaos” on set. Tesfaye made fun of the “ridiculous” report, mocking the accusations on social media and sharing footage from the show that didn’t make it to air where Tedros criticized the magazine.
Throughout this barrage of criticism, the network and people involved with production who spoke with TheWrap seemed dazzled by the vision of the “Euphoria” creator, who’d previously found success centering drugs, sex and scandal in a series aimed at younger viewers.
First released in 2019, “Euphoria” offered an edgy, raw look at addiction and high school life from the perspective of recovering teenager Rue, a role played by Zendaya that catapulted her career, winning her two Emmys for the role.
The show brought record-breaking viewership for the network, according to HBO, with Season 2 averaging 16.3 million viewers, the best performance for any season of an HBO series over the past 18 years other than “Game of Thrones.”
Then ‘The Idol’ came out…
The controversy around “Euphoria” helped boost interest in “The Idol,” with the show debuting to 913,000 viewers for its June 4 evening premiere across Max and linear HBO telecasts, on par with the premiere viewership for “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus,” according to Nielsen and first-party data.
But shock value couldn’t keep viewers’ attention, as the series saw a 12.4% dip in audience to 800,000 across Max and HBO linear telecasts for Episode 2. The network didn’t report viewership for the drama’s remaining three episodes.
Meanwhile, cultural critics continued to pound the show, especially as episodes depicted Jocelyn choking herself while masturbating and Tedros using an electric prod on her friends.
“It’s not just that it’s a male fantasy, but it’s hostile to feminism,” “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” director Nina Menkes told TheWrap in June. “They’re pretending that Jocelyn is the protagonist, but they totally disempower her. She’s sexualized as an object in every single shot. And the whole first episode ends with [Tedros] mansplain[ing] about singing, about sex, about everything.”
But others just excoriated the show as boring.
Critic Roxane Gay posted: “LOL. How did ‘The Idol’ make it to the airwaves? It’s comically bad. Ejaculatory and vapid. They clearly think it’s subversive but it isn’t! It’s boring! Lily-Rose Depp is interesting and it’s a shame she wasn’t given better material.”
One of the insiders who spoke to TheWrap agreed: “It was offensive. And its biggest offense was being boring.”
The cancellation
“The Idol” aired its Season 1 finale on July 2 to little fanfare. An individual close to decision-making at the network told TheWrap Monday that the show’s creators and executive producers had left options open to continue “The Idol” with a potential second season, but didn’t have a specific plan for a multi-season series from the start.
Critics of the show of all different political stripes were thrilled. “We are glad HBO heeded our calls to cancel The Idol, toxic sexually explicit fare targeted to teens,” the conservative Parents Television and Media Council said in a statement on Tuesday. “The program’s extreme and disturbing content – nudity, sexual abuse, torture – can be harmful to young viewers.”
Observed Carr in her interview with TheWrap: “Even some of the shows that have the sexualized female — there’s always other women who may be sexualized but they seem to be more complex and they’re on a journey towards something and not necessarily just being used [and] pimped out in some way toward commodification and consumption.”
When the dust finally settled, there wasn’t much enthusiasm for more. “The Idol” leaves behind five subpar episodes and a stain on the reputations of HBO, Levinson and Tesfaye.
“How did this happen? I don’t know,” the individual with knowledge told TheWrap. “Someone will be writing a book about this one day.”
Loree Seitz contributed to this story.
The post ‘The Idol’ Canceled: Inside the Quick, Messy Death of HBO’s Controversial Drama | Analysis appeared first on TheWrap.
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Universal Music Group Acquires 25% Minority Stake in Chord, Owner of Catalogs Including The Weeknd, John Legend
Universal Music Group is acquiring a minority stake in Chord, which owns over 60,000 songs from artist catalogs like The Weeknd, John Legend, Lorde and more.
Universal is acquiring a 25.8% stake in the business of Chord for $240 million, joining a consortium of owners. The stake in Chord will provide Universal with the opportunity to invest in artist music catalogs without having to purchase them outright.
Additionally, private equity firm KKR is selling its stake in Chord to Universal and Dundee Partners (another investment firm in the consortium) in a deal that values the entire company at around $1.8 billion including debt, according to Bloomberg.
Universal has long been thinking about how best to approach the industry at a time when the value of music catalogs have soared over the last decade. The company acquired the entire catalog of Bob Dylan in 2020.
While the deals for song rights have slowed as interest rates have risen, valuations for entire catalogs have remained high and investment interest has yet to decline.
In December, The Financial Times reported that rising interest rates rates put a freeze on the outright purchases of music catalogs by private-equity backed businesses.
Wall Street giants KKR, Apollo and Blackstone have pulled back on their promises to fund big catalog buys, still not spending the $3 billion they collectively pledged in October 2021, in large part because the rising rates made it harder to justify loading up the assets with the amount of debt they had planned to use.
The post Universal Music Group Acquires 25% Minority Stake in Chord, Owner of Catalogs Including The Weeknd, John Legend appeared first on TheWrap.
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The Weeknd Returns for Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights
Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights is about to get groovy.
The Weeknd (nee Abel Tesfaye) returns to Halloween Horror Nights this year with a brand-new experience The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy. This marks the musician’s return to Universal’s spooky season offering, after 2022’s After Hours Nightmare, which used the mythology surrounding his 2020 album “After Hours” as a jumping off point. (The Weeknd has been making noise on social media recently about the conclusion of a “trilogy” of albums that began with “After Hours” and continued with 2022’s “Dawn F.M.”)
This new house “provides fans an authentic, one-of-a-kind horror experience with surprises at every turn and music by The Weeknd scored by seminal producer, artist, and seven-time Grammy-award winner Mike Dean,” according to the official release. Does this mean the new album will be out beforehand? Or is there a chance that the haunted house will be your first opportunity to hear new music?
Additionally, Universal Studios has announced a Blumhouse theme for their annual Terror Tram, a takeover of the iconic Universal backlot tour. Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse will see guests “encounter some of the most frightening characters from Blumhouse’s popular franchises, including ‘M3GAN,’ ‘The Black Phone,’ ‘Freaky,’ ‘The Purge’ and ‘Happy Death Day.’” Additionally, if you spring for the R.I.P. Tour, you’ll gain exclusive access to the Jupiter’s Claim area of the backlot, themed to Jordan Peele’s “Nope.” (For the past couple of years, on the regular tour, they’ve done a mash-up of Peele’s “Nope” and “Us,” with the Tethered sauntering around Jupiter’s Claim.)
Leatherface also returns to Halloween Horror Nights with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface. The haunted house features “all-new storyline celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the original 1974 slasher film.” The new house is set in an abandoned slaughterhouse, where visitors will “will encounter the many iterations of Leatherface from all nine films in the franchise, dodging his relentless chainsaw at every turn.” It’s about time we entered the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” multiverse. If there isn’t at least a passing nod to the unforgettable “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III” trailer, we will be disappointed.
Also, “The Purge: Dangerous Waters” stunt show will return from last year, occupying the Waterworld stunt show arena. This was one of the highlights of last year’s HHN. It’s making a welcome return.
These experiences join previously announced houses themed to “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “A Quiet Place,” “Insidious” and the Universal Monsters. We’re also very excited about Dead Exposure: Death Valley, “an original concept house with petrifying radioactive zombies.”
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood begins on Thursday, September 5 and continues select nights through Sunday, November 3. A variety of Halloween Horror Nights ticket options for Universal Studios Hollywood are now available, including General Admission, Universal Express, After 2 PM Day/Night, the Early Access Ticket, which provides access to select haunted houses beginning at 5:30 p.m. (subject to change), in advance of the scheduled 7:00 p.m. event opening time, the premium R.I.P. Tour and popular passes, Frequent Fear Pass and Ultimate Fear Pass, which enable guests to experience the scares again and again.
The post The Weeknd Returns for Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights appeared first on TheWrap.
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