Fox prepares to say goodbye to 'American Idol'

This week, Fox announced some big news: they decided to cancel their iconic American Idol and confirmed that its fifteenth season, scheduled to air next year, will be its last. The final season of the once most popular show on television will see the return of the same judging panel as the last three cycles; Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick, Jr. 

It's the truth. Idol was once the most popular show on television, and was dubbed Fox's "Death Star" as no other show from any other network was able to outbid it in its timeslot. Over 35 million people watched Idol each week in 2007, and in recent years, those numbers started to go down. Drastically. For seven seasons, the show's judging panel consisted of the brutally honest and hard-to-impress Simon Cowell, record producer Randy Jackson and recording artist Paula Abdul. Arguably Idol's most popular panel of judges, by 2010 both Cowell and Abdul had left respectively. Ratings began to go down thereafter, despite Jackson remaining on the panel and the addition of Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. 2013 saw the addition of Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and Mariah Carey to the judging panel, which arguably became the most controversial season of the series. Jackson left the panel after that year after thirteen seasons (but remained briefly with the show as a mentor). Since then, the panel has consisted of Urban, Lopez, and Connick, Jr., and despite them having great chemistry together as a whole, it didn't save the show's continuously falling ratings.

When Fox announced their decision to cancel Idol this week, people on Twitter were buzzing so much that "Fox cancels American Idol" was trending. But mostly with negativity... Many people were saying they were surprised Idol was even still on, and it should've been ended years ago. Yes, the show undoubtedly ran way longer than it should have. Yes, the quality definitely decreased the past few years as well as the talent levels of contestants. But why so negative? American Idol paved the way for basically every other talent competition show on television in the 2000s. Sure, it had become unpopular in the past few years, but it was once the most popular show on television. Without a doubt. Fact, not fiction. And yes, it's definitely time to retire the show. Its ran its run. But what we should be buzzing about is the impact its had on American television. Without American Idol, there would be no America's Got Talent, no Dancing with the Stars, and certainly, most definitely, no The Voice (which essentially took over most of Idol's viewing audience after 2011. Congrats, NBC. Someone over there finally outbid what was once outbidable.)

The fifteenth and final season of Idol is scheduled to air on Fox in 2016, with special guests and events planned to pay homage to the long-running series.