'American Idol' to be eliminated after 2016 season

Bill Keveney | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption 'American Idol' eliminated after 2016 season 'American Idol' will officially wrap up its run on Fox following Season 15, which premieres in January. According to the network, Ryan Seacrest, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick, Jr. are all set to return for the final season.

To paraphrase one of its popular elimination anthems, American Idol is having a bad day.

The long-running singing competition, not one of its singers, is being voted out by Fox, which will give it a 15th and final season next year. A once-monumental hit that delivered on its promise to create huge recording stars has seen its ratings nosedive in recent years, with the last couple of winners failing to draw much attention in an increasingly fragmented entertainment world.

Fox announced the upcoming end of Idol in a 2015-16 schedule announcement released Monday morning in advance of the network's presentation later in the day to advertisers in New York.

The cancellation was "not an easy decision," says Fox Networks Group co-chief Gary Newman, but "we all felt collectively it was time to bring American Idol to an end." He says the final, 15th run "will be a true season-long celebration," and producers are looking for "surprises we can have for fans" that will make the farewell as "significant as the run it had on our network."

Host Ryan Seacrest, who has been with the show since it launched as a summer series in 2002, and the critically praised judging panel, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr., will be on board for the final run.

Seacrest, the only remaining on-camera personality from the series premiere, issued a statement expressing his sentiments – and, fittingly, promoting Season 14's two-night finale (Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET/PT, and Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET/PT).

"American Idol has been a big part of my life for so long, it's frankly hard to imagine it without it. It's been a remarkable journey, and I feel very fortunate to have been part of a show that made television history in countless ways. It's a show about chasing and fulfilling dreams, and truth be told, it helped some of my own dreams come true too," says Seacrest, who has been involved with many subsequent projects, both in front of and behind the camera.

"All the American Idol producers, judges, crew and everyone at Fox have been heroic in their efforts to create, produce and sustain such a groundbreaking show for so many years," his statement says. "I'm so glad they're going to give us a season-long send off. The last season will undoubtedly be a special and emotional one, but first I'm looking forward to closing out Season 14. The finale is always my favorite part -- two live shows with lots of surprises, and, of course, one winner!"

The departure will truly mark the end of an era. Idol, once a ratings juggernaut, is the most recent series – and likely the last ever – to average more than 30 million viewers a week. For its first decade, the show was a cultural phenomenon, introducing the public to future superstars Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson and turning judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul (for a second time) into household names.

In its early seasons, audience numbers rose each year, defying the usual TV ratings gravity. Other networks avoided running their better programs against Idol for fear of being trampled in the ratings and the singing competition's annual coronation finale was one of the biggest TV events of the year.

In recent years, however, Idol has gone into rapid ratings decline and is averaging only a little more than 10 million viewers per episode this year. It cut back from the traditional two shows a week to one after the beginning portion of this season and it trails its NBC singing competitor, The Voice, in viewers and advertiser-coveted young adults.

Still, Idol's glory days, its grand and not-so-grand moments and its many talented singers will leave the show and its fans with plenty of fond memories to celebrate in the final season.