ABC Resurrecting One-Time Ratings Giant ‘American Idol’

It’s the same old song and dance: American Idol is returning.

This time, however, Fox won’t be the network behind the reality singing competition. Instead, ABC is trying to breathe life into the once-behemoth franchise. The news was announced this morning on Good Morning America.

But this is a different sort of revival, given that the show’s only been off the air a single year—and Fox was the network that built the show into a ratings-smashing hit.

It’s unclear whether Ryan Seacrest will return as host, but he did allude to the possibility in a Monday morning segment on Live with Kelly and Ryan, a show he co-hosts with Kelly Ripa on the same network (see above).

As The New York Times notes, it’s a particularly ironic move in that, after Fox folded the show, the network immediately jumped on the revival bandwagon, bringing back 24, Lethal Weapon, and Prison Break to “fill the post-Idol gap.”