Bombshell 'The Idol' Report Reveals Why Show Is Constantly Delayed, What Happened Mid-Production, Explicit 'Torture P-rn' Scenes With Lily Rose-Depp & The Weeknd, Blackpink Jennie's Involvement & More

Sam Levinson allegedly had a very different vision for the show, as did The Weeknd.

“‘I went into The Idol thinking that this might be an interesting collaboration, but I left it pretty convinced that [Levinson] is not quite collaborative,’ one source says. ‘It’s really frustrating seeing Amy doing her damn best to turn around some kind of product that she can be somewhat proud of to HBO… and then [for HBO] to turn around and have Sam get essentially a blank check to turn it into ‘Euphoria Season Three with pop stars’ is extremely, extremely frustrating.’”

“A report from April blamed the show’s overhaul on Tesfaye, who was reportedly unhappy that the story was focusing too much on Depp’s character, according to Deadline. A source with knowledge seconds that Tesfaye was the reason behind the shakeup, wanting to tone down the cult aspect of the storyline and pivot into something else entirely, dropping the ‘feminist lens’ through which the show was being told as a result. ‘It was like the Weeknd wanted one show that was all about him — Sam was on board with that,” another source explains to Rolling Stone.”