'American Idol' Fans Need to Pay Attention to the Important Schedule Change for the 2021 Season

Kayla Keegan
·2 min read
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From Good Housekeeping

American Idol is switching things up in more ways than one this year.

On one level, season 4 (19th season overall)'s Hollywood Week is undergoing a makeover, as judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie announced on Idol this past Sunday night. Instead of each remaining contestant choosing their partners for the duet stage of the competition, the judges will be the ones pairing each artist up. This, of course, will make the task even more daunting (remember those awful group project assignments in high school?), but also more interesting to watch.

So that's one curveball — the other has to do with the show's schedule for the rest of the spring. Now that the audition process is over, American Idol will start airing both Sunday and Monday nights on ABC at 8 p.m. ET for the foreseeable future.

Here's what we know about the American Idol 2021 schedule so far:

Of course, ABC could later decide to make more scheduling adjustments — and if the network does, we'll make sure to update this post ASAP with the latest information. But according to MJs Big Blog, Futon Critic, and Heavy.com, the season finale should take place on May 23 and the rest of season 4 (assuming it'll be similar to past seasons) will look something like this:

  • March 21 - Hollywood Week: Genre Challenge

  • March 22 - Hollywood Week: Duets Challenge

  • March 28 - Showstopper/Final Judgement Pt. 1

  • March 29 - Showstopper/Final Judgement Pt. 2

  • April 4 - All-Star Duets and Solos, Pt. 1

  • April 5 - All-Star Duets and Solos, Pt. 2

  • April 11 - Top 16

  • April 12 - TBA

  • April 18 - TBA

  • April 19 - TBA

  • April 25 - No new episode, Academy Awards air on ABC.

  • April 26 - TBA

  • May 2 - TBA

  • May 3 - TBA

  • May 9 - TBA

  • May 10 - TBA

  • May 16 - TBA

  • May 17 - TBA

  • May 23 - TBA

If this seems like a lot of Idol to keep up with every week, don't sweat it — repeat episodes are slated to air throughout the spring on Saturday nights at 9 p.m. ET. Otherwise, previous episodes are available to stream on ABC.com the day after they air. You also have the ABC Go App or streaming services like FuboTV, Youtube TV, or Hulu. Like we said before, there's no reason to fret — if anything, more Idol is a good thing!

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