It looks like the provocative trailers weren’t enough. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Idol didn’t draw huge audience for its first episode on Sunday but didn’t fall behind other series with similar debuts. Even though the show received mostly negative reviews, it drew 913,000 viewers across HBO, including streaming on Max.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, these numbers are step down for the network from the premiere date numbers for the final season of Succession. The Idol is on par with other recent HBO drama debuts including Winning Time (901,000 viewers) and season one of White Lotus (944,000). But the show could still increase its audience. There is pattern that shows that HBO series grow their audience throughout the run of the season. Winning Time ended up with 6 million viewers per episode while White Lotus finished its first season with 9.3 million viewers, so there is still hope for The Idol.
The show, which has been labeled as “torture porn” by production insiders, was produced by Sam Levinson (Euphoria, Deep Water), Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, and newcomer Reza Fahim. The Idol has been through several creative obstacles to get made. It seems that these new claims made by a Rolling Stone report that the show went “wildly, disgustingly off the rails” and was “shitshow” started after the series original director Amy Seimetz (The Girlfriend Experience, She Dies Tomorrow) was changed and Levinson took her place. This is when claims that the show’s story took a turn towards “rape fantasy… torture porn” and became more sexually “disturbing,” and less feminist. This has led to the character of Jocelyn accepting the abusive Tedros to improve her music.
The cast of the show includes Lily-Rose Depp (The King, Silent Night) as Jocelyn, a pop star whose music career is going through a rough time; The Weeknd (The Simpsons) as Tedros, a nightclub manager with a shameful past; Suzanna Son (Red Rocket, Secret Escort) as Chloe; Troye Sivan (Three Months, Boy Erased) as Caleb; Moses Sumney (Creed, Random Acts of Flyness) as Izaak; Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek, Happiest Season); Da’Vine Joy Randolph (A Little White Lie, Only Murders in the Building); Eli Roth (Clown, Rock of Ages), Hari Nef (Meet Cute, You), Jane Adams (She Dies Tomorrow, Sick); newcomer Mike Dean; Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies, Call Your Mother); newcomer Ramsey, and Hank Azaria (The Simpsons, Hello Tomorrow!).
The Idol follows Jocelyn, a singer whose career gets derailed after a nervous breakdown prevents her from finishing her last tour. Jocelyn is determined to claim her status as the greatest and sexiest pop star in the United States. Her passion gets renewed when she meets Tedros. She now must question whether this new romantic connection is going to take her to glorious new heights or the deepest and darkest depths of her soul.
The Idol is available to stream on HBO and Max. New episodes premiere every Sunday.