‘The Idol’ is canceled after just one season

By Hafsa Khalil, CNN

(CNN) — Television show “The Idol” has been canceled after just one, poorly received season, HBO has confirmed.

“After much thought and consideration, HBO, as well as the creators and producers have decided not to move forward with a second season,” a HBO spokesperson said in a statement sent to CNN Tuesday. “The Idol was one of HBO’s most provocative original programs, and we’re pleased by the strong audience response.”

The five-part series followed Lily-Rose Depp as a Britney-styled pop star, who falls in love with a cult leader and nightclub owner, played by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, pulling back the curtain to display the slimy side of the music industry.

The show was dubbed by some critics as abusive and pornographic following its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Like HBO’s hit show “Euphoria,” “The Idol” was helmed by Sam Levinson. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery).

Variety called it a “sordid male fantasy,” writing: “It shouldn’t take degradation and suffering to make Jocelyn stronger. ‘Euphoria’ audiences won’t be too surprised by the shameful way (Levinson) treats Depp’s character, as both she and the show appear trapped under The Weeknd’s thumb.”

But controversy had swirled around the production for months prior. The first director left the show with about 80% of it completed, Rolling Stone reported earlier this year, citing sources who spoke of a chaotic production environment.

When the show aired, the negative reviews kept coming.

“The expression ‘From the sublime to the ridiculous’ has seldom felt more fitting than in watching ‘The Idol,’ HBO’s new wannabe-sexy drama,” a review from CNN’s Brian Lowry said in June.

Lowry later added that HBO had “wound up with a laughably bad ‘Showgirls’ for our times, bringing its run of sterling dramatic successes (see ‘Succession,’ ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘The Last of Us’) to a crashing and conspicuous halt.”

While the show “bent over backwards (and occasionally forwards and sideways) to feel provocative … its most salient flaw wasn’t so much being offensive as simply boring, a quality that persisted over its five episodes,” Lowry wrote.

“HBO can write off ‘The Idol’ as an experiment in creative freedom that didn’t pay off, which happens all the time,” Lowry concluded.

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CNN’s Leah Asmelash contributed reporting.