It’s almost time for what is, in this writer’s opinion, the most entertaining and crucial part of American Idol: Hollywood Week 2023. For six weeks, fans watched contestants audition in front of judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Richie for a golden ticket to Hollywood. Now, those who made the cut will be pushed to their limits with high-stakes vocal challenges. There will be stress, drama, laughs, and of course, beautiful performances. Here’s everything to know about Hollywood Week 2023, including air dates, special guests, format changes, and more.
When is Hollywood Week on ‘American Idol’ 2023?
Hollywood Week has always been an American Idol staple. It’s essentially a vocal boot camp for those golden ticket winners. Throughout the week, the judges evaluate contestants and send home the ones who don’t meet their “idol” standards, ensuring that only the most prepared singers move on to America’s voting rounds.
Hollywood Week was filmed over the course of a few days, but it will air on ABC for two weeks. American Idol 2023 will switch to two nights a week at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Here are the Hollywood Week air dates:
- Sunday, April 2: “Hollywood Week Part 1”
- Monday, April 3: “Hollywood Week Part 2”
- Sunday, April 9: “Showstopper/Final Judgement Part 1”
- Monday, April 10: “Showstopper/Final Judgement Part 2”
After that, the Top 24 contestants will visit the Aulani Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii to perform to America’s votes.
‘American Idol’ 2023 Hollywood Week will bring back alumni as mentors
For the first time on ABC, American Idol 2023 Hollywood Week will bring in a group of mentors. But these aren’t just any singers, they’re people who have been through Hollywood Week themselves: American Idol alumni. Per Billboard, there will be seven past finalists in total, including “Justin Guarini (season 1), Clay Aiken (season 2), Jordin Sparks (season 6), David Archuleta (season 7), Phillip Phillips (season 11), Catie Turner (season 16) and Noah Thompson (season 20).”
Showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick told Billboard that Hollywood Week mentors have been an idea for quite a while.
“We usually have over 150 people come to Hollywood Week, so it’s hard to have one mentor talk to everyone individually,” Michaels Wolflick said. “I thought, ‘Who better to mentor on the Hollywood experience than people who have actually been through it.’… There’s no one better to mentor this week than people who have been there, and now that we can pull from 20 years of Idols, it was incredible.”
The Hollywood Week format is changing
In addition to the mentors, Hollywood Week will feature new challenges. Previous seasons have organized the contestants by genre, but that will not be the case in season 21.
“In the past two years in the ABC era, we’ve done this genre challenge. We would say, ‘Okay, you’re rock. You’re pop. You’re soul/R&B,’ and it was becoming less relevant, because a lot of the finalists were telling us, ‘I’m pop-soul.’ ‘I’m country-rock.’ There was a blurred genre thing going on. So I thought we should explore something else,” Michaels Wolflick said.
Instead, the contestants will split into areas that they need to work on the most. The three categories are “confidence, songwriting, and stage presence.” Aiken and Archuleta will work with contestants on confidence, Turner and Phillips on songwriting, and Sparks and Guarini on stage presence.
Other areas of Hollywood Week will remain the same, like the duets challenge and Showstoppers, where they perform with a band.
Tensions are high in the first preview for Hollywood Week 2023
Those who stuck around on ABC after episode 5 on March 26 saw a first look at Hollywood Week. In the short teaser, the contestants experienced tension and drama due to lack of sleep and time limits. One singer might crack under the pressure, as Perry asks them if they’re choosing to drop out of the competition.
The judges recently sat down for an interview on The View, seen above, where they teased Hollywood Week’s intensity.
“Hollywood Week is like survival of the fittest,” Perry said. “People lose their voice, they melt down, it’s a whole situation. It’s TV. It’s drama, it’s real life.”
Bryan added that viewers will see Perry “get on somebody pretty good.”
“It was one of the more tense moments we’ve ever had,” he added.
New episodes of American Idol air on Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Next-day streaming is also available on Hulu.
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