It is arguable that HBO’s most recent Sunday night offering, The Idol, was doomed before it even made it to air, with the show shrouded in controversy since last Spring.

HBO

Despite being the brainchild of The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson, Amy Seimetz was the original director of the show.

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However, she suddenly exited the project in April 2022, with reporting that “roughly 80 percent of the six-episode series” was finished when she left.

Rolling Stone

HBO

It was later that The Weeknd thought that Amy’s vision for the series was “leaning too much into a ‘female perspective,’” and Sam scrapped almost all of the completed work on the project when he took over as director.

claimed

HBO