The long-running competition series American Idol is packing up its cameras in Los Angeles and relocating production to Atlanta for its 25th season, underscoring Hollywoods accelerating flight from high-tax, heavily regulated California to more business-friendly states.
According to Breitbart, Georgias generous incentives are a major draw, with the state currently offering a 30 percent tax credit for unscripted and reality television productions that spend at least $500,000. Fremantle co-produces the show alongside Sony Pictures Televisions 19 Entertainment, and the move signals that even legacy franchises are no longer willing to absorb Californias mounting costs.
California politicians have touted an expanded production tax credit as proof they are supporting the entertainment industry, but the numbers tell a different story. According to TheWrap, while the program has attracted 170 films and TV shows, it still hasnt halted the decline in on-location shooting in Los Angeles as the number of shoot days in the second quarter of 2026 fell 12% year-over-year.
The outlet further noted, Only 4,711 shoot days were recorded this past quarter, down from the 5,394 recorded in the second quarter of 2025 and the 5,121 recorded in the previous quarter. In all, the quarter remains a steep 36% below the five-year average. For a comparison beyond that average, 8,632 shoot days were recorded in the second quarter of 2019, a year that at the time had been a five-year low for on-location shooting in L.A.
As Breitbart News recently reported, even the Baywatch reboot has weighed leaving California, deterred by layers of regulation and bureaucratic red tape that typify blue-state governance. Projections further show that a potential exodus of the Paramount movie studio from California would inflict billions of dollars in economic damage and wipe out tens of thousands of jobs.
A study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation found that California would lose roughly 28,990 to 57,980 full-time jobs statewide across multiple industries if Paramount decamped to a state such as Tennessee, with annual revenue losses estimated between $10.6 billion and $21.2 billion. It should be emphasized that these estimated job losses include direct, indirect and induced jobs, capturing the ripple effects through Paramounts supply chains in California as well as the economic activity of household spending, the study said.
Consequently, the job losses pertain to all California industries rather than solely to motion picture and television production. The same study concluded that if Paramount instead acquired Warner Bros. and honored its pledge to release 30 films in theaters each year, it could generate between 1,020 and 2,760 jobs in California and between $377.7 million and $1.01 billion in economic activity, a reminder that growth follows policies that reward investment rather than punish it.
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