‘The Idol’ Might’ve Been Great Without Sam Levinson and Abel Tesfaye’s Interference

The Idol is terrible. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not is up to you. However, this show’s didn’t have to be a catastrophic belly flop. In fact, it might have actually been genuinely good had men of medium talent decided not to interfere. That’s right: The Idol was originally going to be something better, but show creators Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye reportedly decided that it was too female-focused and needed to be smutted up. As a result, they fired director Amy Seimetz from the show and massively retooled everything.

With that in mind, if you’re not already upset, I’m going to ruin your day because pictures of what the show could have been under director Amy Seimetz’s guidance made it online, and that iteration of The Idol looked, dare I say, good and compelling? Unfortunately, the photos disappeared almost as soon as they were leaked, but some versions that give a glimpse of what the show could have been still exist in the wild, courtesy of a young actor’s Instagram:

Here’s another post from Arabella Grant’s Instagram with further behind-the-scenes images:

More images leaked recently make it appear that Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) was a bubblegum pop star akin to Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera circa the early 2000s, showing cut-outs and other branded merch of Jocelyn seemingly as a teen star. They’ve all been taken down, but you can see one of the images in the header of this article demanding that HBO release the Amy Seimetz version of the show. You’ll note that the image shows Jocelyn surrounded by five other women in a group shot; the Jocelyn in Levinson and Tesfaye’s version probably couldn’t have named five women in her life, so that’s a fun contrast. These leaks show a version of The Idol that at least looks more interesting than what we got. On the surface, exploring the evolution of a teen pop sensation into an adult artist navigating the world of staying relevant and dealing with emotional vampires (like Tedros, the character Tesfaye played) seems interesting, right? Much better than the weird, sweaty version with boring yet gratuitous sex scenes that HBO released.

Now, look, this is not my first day on Al Gore’s internet. I spend way too much time wasting my life away on various platforms, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen backstage stills taken down and an attempt to have photos erased from existence. I’m not saying bust out your tinfoil hat (yet), but you may want to make sure there’s a roll in the pantry because this seems fishy. You can find tons of unofficial stills and candid shots from the version of The Idol that aired via an Instagram or Twitter search. Why does it matter if images of the Seimetz iteration of the show leak now that The Idol has ended its first season and most likely won’t be back for a second?

Maybe one day someone will give us access to the rough cut of Seimetz’s version of this show, which is said to have been fairly close to being finished. Until then, we can mourn what could have been had Tesfaye not intervened because he reportedly thought the show was too focused on the “female perspective.”

(featured image: HBO)