Sorry, Oreo: HBO Denies The Idol Is Canceled
The Idol, the new HBO show from the Weeknd and Sam Levinson, is two weeks into a very eventful first season. The show was a controversy magnet before it even made it to air, and it has remained a topic of overheated conversation since its premiere. Most recently, The Idol got a lot of attention for an utterly preposterous second-episode sex scene. When he talked to GQ earlier this week, the Weeknd said that The Idol had “definitely shaken up the culture for sure.” As much as people hate this show, it might not be done shaking up the culture yet.
Thus far, HBO has been quiet on the ultimate fate of The Idol. Deadline reports that the show’s second episode drew 800,000 viewers in its first night. Those seem like OK numbers but not great ones, especially given the show’s reportedly-expensive production. It’s not clear whether the six-episode season was even supposed to stand as a limited series or whether it was meant to come back for another season, but Popdose reported yesterday that HBO had opted not to bring The Idol back for a second season. Whoever runs the Oreo brand’s Twitter account was happy about that.
Oreo, it turns out, was celebrating prematurely. After those reports circulated, HBO’s PR team tweeted that the network has not yet made any decisions regarding the future of The Idol.
I bet HBO’s PR team loves this show.