Season 1 concluded — after just five episodes, shortened from the originally planned six-episode run — on July 2. The decision to cancel the series was made recently after a lack of clarity for both viewers and cast members about whether the series had the potential to continue. In an interview with Variety, star Moses Sumney said that he signed on thinking it was a limited series, while star Da’Vine Joy Randolph told Variety she thought “everyone’s intention [was] to have a second season.”
Overall, “The Idol” was poorly received, with a 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety‘s review said that the series “plays like a sordid male fantasy.”
Ratings for the series were middling. It premiered with 913,000 viewers — 17% fewer than the 2019 launch of “Euphoria,” another HBO show hailing from Levinson that targeted a young adult audience, with fewer celebrity attached at the time of release. However, that number did grow to 3.6 million viewers after the episode’s first full week of availability, and now sits at 7 million. Episode 2 fell to 800,000 viewers on its first night.
Throughout the rest of the series’ run, HBO declined to share viewership data.
The original was to be focused on the female character navigating the twisted misogyny of entertainment, but they switched showrunners after filming 80% of the first season, to the guy who made Euphoria, who had everything rewrote/reshot to instead glorify it all instead of subverting/fighting it. It's basically the opposite of what it was supposed to be. It was very girl-focused under a female showrunner, switched to guy-focused under a male showrunner. Rolling Stone put it as explicitly as The Weeknd "who is co-creator, felt the show was heading too much into a 'female perspective.'"