Fans “Upset” After “American Idol” Introduces First-Ever “Comeback Round”

Luke Bryan / Instagram

This week’s episode of American Idol left fans “upset” and they aren’t holding back their disappointment.

On Sunday night (April 18), Ava August, Beane, and Madison Watkins were all eliminated from the competition leaving just nine singers remaining. In what host Ryan Seacrest called “biggest shakeup in Idol history,” the show will continue on with ten contestants, but the final person in the Top Ten, will not be a singer we have seen this year.

Instead, they brought back ten “familiar faces” from last year, who were never able to perform live on the Idol stage due to the coronavirus shut down, for what they are calling “The Comeback.”

Seacrest explained, “Those finalists never got the true experience of the big stage, the lights, the cameras, the hair, the makeup, the wardrobe, that fun stuff, Kris Pooley and the band backing them up.”

The Ten Comeback artists performed on Monday night (April 19) and fans will have all week, until April 26, to vote for who they think should make the Top Ten. While the judges were excited to see some familiar faces again, not everyone was thrilled.

One fan wrote on twitter, “Am I the only one who has a problem with this ‘comeback’ twist? #1 I don’t feel like it was disclosed at the beginning, or at least I don’t remember if it was.”

https://twitter.com/momtvreviews/status/1384442607602896896

Another fan called the move “unfair” to the contestants this season, especially the three who had been cut to make room for the one from last year.

See some more reactions below.

https://twitter.com/deymdyems/status/1384322057299578883

Another reason people are pointing out that the Comeback is unfair, is because some, if not all, of the singers have large fanbases. Take Arthur Gunn, for example. He was the runner-up from last season, but even Katy Perry knows about his large fanbase, noting during her judging that she has seen him trending on Twitter several times.

Watch his performance below. Critics believe he is the Comeback artist to beat!