American Idol recently finished its 23rd season on the 2025 TV schedule, with Jamal Roberts outsinging the competition to win the big prize in the end. Carrie Underwood returned to the show as a judge this season, and she acknowledged that a lot has changed since the singing competition’s days on Fox. One aspect that’s not included in the current ABC version is the farewell segment, and the executive producer shared her thoughts on whether or not that might ever make a comeback.
In early seasons of American Idol, after host Ryan Seacrest would reveal which contestant had received the fewest votes and was being sent home, America got to spend a few final moments with the outgoing singer, looking back at their journey on the show. Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” famously played over this montage starting in Season 5 (one season after Carrie Underwood’s win), and showrunner and EP Megan Michaels Wolflick was asked by TVLine if they might bring that back. Wolflick said:
The Daniel Powter, if you will? ‘Had a Bad Day’? [Laughs] Well, that worked because we had a results show. We had a second show where the whole hour was dedicated to the results, so we could have that moment. Now, with the real-time voting and the coast-to-coast live voting, it’s so difficult to have that proper [goodbye], unfortunately. We want to make sure that the two hours are jam-packed with music and everything else going on.
It makes complete sense that this was one segment that was lost when American Idol went from two episodes a week down to one. Previously, artists competed on one night, and America had a day to cast their votes, with those results being revealed the next evening.
Now everything takes place in one live two-hour show, so unfortunately the results end up coming in the final seconds with the credits already rolling.
Gone are the days when singers would cry as they watched back this life-changing experience to the poignant lyrics of Daniel Powter. Now they barely have time to register their fate before Ryan Seacrest wishes America a good night. (What happened to “Seacrest out,” anyway?)
Megan Michaels Wolflick did admit she liked the farewell segment, though, saying:
But yes, at the end of the day, if we could have an extra two minutes to look back at each person’s journey, that would be lovely.
So it sounds like it’s not completely out of the question that we might see a proper sendoff for the runners-up in future seasons. It really does come down to timing and possibly an effort to keep audiences engaged in the outcome until the last possible second. I’ll definitely be interested to see if they make that change.
Speaking of future seasons, fans are wondering what the judges’ table will look like for American Idol Season 24. No official word has come down from ABC about whether or not Carrie Underwood will continue to judge alongside Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie after replacing Katy Perry on the panel.
Stay tuned for news on that, and if you didn’t get as much time as you wanted with the eliminated Season 23 contestants, episodes are available to stream with a Hulu subscription.
