HBO’s The Idol was supposed to be The Next Big Thing. Instead, it’s being canceled after five episodes and attracting only 133,000 viewers.
Showbiz 411 reported:
The Sam Levinson-The Weeknd series was announced as six episodes when the deal was signed. But viewers heard right last night when it was announced that this Sunday would be the end. That’s just five episodes.
Last week’s installment got only 133K viewers on the HBO main channel. We’ll know tomorrow what happened this past Sunday.
“The Idol” was the subject of a lot of infighting during production. Here was a major creative dispute when the show was being filmed. Director Amy Seimetz left after three episodes, probably because she saw the disgusting direction of this barely watchable porn fest. Also, she probably clashed with The Weeknd, who cannot act.
HBO now claims that what was originally advertised as a six-episode first-season run was always meant to be five episodes. Whatever. It’s doornail dead now.
Sam Levinson is the guy behind Euphoria, another sex-filled HBO show, but one that has won enough viewers to earn a third-season renewal.
The Idol is an interesting case that explodes the idea that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. It’s the story of a wannabe pop star (Johnny’s little girl — Lily-Rose Depp) willing to do anything to achieve fame. This leads her to a self-help guru (The Weeknd) and his modern-day cult. Depending on who you read, the cult either sexually exploits this wannabe pop idol through degradation, or this wannabe pop idol enjoys a sexual awakening to the pleasures of degradation.
Whatever happened to sexy?
Anyway, the prudes at the far-left Rolling Stone labeled the show as “sexual torture porn” and allowed prudish crew members to brutalize the show as “like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better.”
You would think this kind of uproar would explode the ratings, but The Idol appears to have hit that sweet spot no one was interested in. The uptight prudes stayed away because staying away made them feel sanctimonious. Normal people stayed away because normal people enjoy sexy, not degrading. Degrading is off-putting whether the woman is enjoying herself or not. Yuck. Why watch The Idol on HBO when you can watch women degrade themselves for free all over the internet?
I don’t like seeing the reactionary prudes win one. The Idol is certainly not my kind of show, but people should be allowed to create art without being shouted off the planet. You might not like the content, but no one broke the law, and these are consenting adults. Trust me; you want the free speech line way-way-way over there, as far away from you as possible. Once the heckler’s veto wins one, the line moves closer.
At the same time, maybe this will herald the return of sexy. That would be nice. The only sex in entertainment today is the skeezy kind. It’s also nice to brush HBO back from the plate. The outlet will no longer be so sure that controversy sells. HBO likely believed that the virtue-signaling Rolling Stone hit-piece would explode ratings. Oops.
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