‘American Idol’ Moving Production To Georgia As RTL Gruppe Series Becomes Latest To Leave California

EXCLUSIVE: The volume of reality TV production in Los Angeles has been falling over the last five years and the situation is set to worsen as one of the biggest music competition shows is set to leave the city.

Deadline understands that American Idol is moving production from Los Angeles to the Atlanta area in Georgia.

The ABC show is moving production for its upcoming Season 25, which premieres in the new year, Fremantle, which produces the show with Sony Pictures Television-backed 19 Entertainment, confirmed to Deadline.

We hear that Fremantle is in final talks with a studio complex in the area but that it has not signed the deal.

Georgia is one of the main shooting locations outside of L.A. and New York in the U.S. and has been the home for various Marvel movies and shows such as Captain America: Brave New World and Wandavision as well as unscripted series such as Fox’s The 1% Club and ABC game show Press Your Luck, hosted by Elizabeth Banks (see comments).

It comes after Fox moved production of one of the other big music competition series – The Masked Singer – out of the state and to New Jersey for Season 15. One of the reasons that Fox is moving The Masked Singer is that The Garden State offers production tax incentives of 30% on qualified expenses with up to 40% on certain studio projects and unlike many states, including California, allows all types of unscripted shows to qualify.

This is similar in Georgia, which offers up to a 30% tax credit for unscripted and reality television productions that spend at least $500,000 in the state, which is one of the main reasons for the Idol move.

German television network Radio Television Luxembourg (RTL) is parent of Fremantle. RTL Gruppe has been moving their shows out of California for a while.

Family Feud has been in Atlanta (Civic Center, Georgia World Congress Center, Trilith Studios, and Tyler Perry Studios, the last of which is the former Fort McPherson) from 2011-17 and since 2020. The most recent series of RTL's Press Your Luck was filmed at Trilith Studios (owned by the Cathy family). The BBC/Fox production "The 1% Club US" is also filmed at Trilith.

Ryan Seacrest is from Dunwoody.

RTL is considering "The Price Is Right" to make the 2,000 mile trip east from Glendale to Fayetteville (Trilith), as RTL Group seemingly is planning to centralise their shows at Trilith, in 2027.

The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal (produced with Marcus Lemonis and Nancy Glass Entertainment) are the two RTL game shows still in California, centralisation will likely mean a move by 2027-28. They considered it this year but decided they have to finish out the current deal. Price ends its season in December, so they could easily decide to move the show east for September 2027.

Glamour, prestige, and sophisticated economics and science are becoming more and more associated with Southern states while California and New York are starting to be seen as backwater places, as places that the creative and adventurous, and exciting, flee when they can or avoid in the first place.

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