ABC’s March 22 lineup is going to look a bit different than planned tonight. Originally, ABC was preparing to debut the new season of The Bachelorette on Sunday night, with the show returning after more than a year off the air. Taylor Frankie Paul was set to begin her journey as the newest Bachelorette, and ABC had been heavily promoting the season in the buildup to the show’s long-awaited return.
A lot can change in a short amount of time, though, and just days before The Bachelorette was set to premiere, ABC made the decision to cancel the season 22 premiere. The decision came after TMZ released a video from a 2023 fight between Frankie Paul and her ex, Dakota Mortensen, which led her to plead guilty to aggravated assault at the time.
Following the video’s release, ABC pulled the show from the schedule, which left it with an unexpected two-hour void in its primetime slate. With only a few days to plan, ABC announced that American Idol would be taking over The Bachelorette’s spot on Sunday night. There’s just one problem for American Idol fans: this isn’t a new episode.
With limited options, ABC decided to air an American Idol rerun in the time slot The Bachelorette season 22 premiere was intended to fill. Tonight, ABC will re-air the first part of the Top 20 performances, which originally aired on Monday, March 16. During the episode, fans will get to watch the first 10 performances from Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawai'i, with Brad Paisley and Keke Palmer stepping in to help mentor the contestants as they hope to secure a place in the next round of the competition.
It was an amazing night of performances, and the rerun does work out nicely for the show, as it’ll lead into the second part of the Top 20 performances airing on Monday night. For those who missed the show the first time around, it’s a great opportunity to watch the performances the night before the second batch of contestants perform during the show’s regularly scheduled programming block. However, if you already watched the episode, there really isn’t any incentive to tune in again.
What will be interesting to see is if ABC decides to stretch out American Idol’s presence on the network moving forward to fill The Bachelorette-shaped hole in the schedule.
Last season, ABC aired American Idol episodes on Sunday and Monday nights, but the plan seemed to be for the show to shift to a once-a-week format this season. Now that Sunday night is vacant, though, it would make sense for ABC to change up the American Idol schedule to bring viewers episodes twice a week, as it did last season.
Of course, there’s no telling whether this is an option on the table, but it would help ABC fill that spot in the schedule, and we’re certain American Idol fans would love to see the show back in a two-night-a-week format for this season!