Fox have announced that they will officially close the curtain on American Idol after its upcoming fifteenth season.
Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. will all return to the judging panel for what is to be the final season, American Idol XV, joining Ryan Seacrest who has been with the series from the beginning.
American Idol first hit airwaves back in 2002. At its peak in 2006, Idol drew in 36 million viewers for its season finale. However, ratings have been falling steadily since then, with a series-low 11.6 million viewers in its 14th season.
While the show is still pulling in more viewers than some surviving shows, it is extremely expensive to produce with celebrity judges, multi-city audition tours and extravagant live shows driving up the production costs.
Idol‘s farewell season will debut in January 2016 and will “pay tribute to the past 14 seasons” of the pop culture sensation.
