American Idol is packing up. After a quarter century tied to Los Angeles, the singing competition will shoot its upcoming season in the Atlanta area, according to Fremantle, which makes the show alongside 19 Entertainment, a Sony Pictures Television company.

Deadline first reported the move. The LA Times followed up with the wider picture, and it isn't pretty for Hollywood.

Georgia offers reality shows a tax credit of up to 30% if they spend at least $500,000 in the state. That kind of math is hard for a network to ignore when margins are already tight and audiences are shrinking.

This isn't a one-off. Fox's The Masked Singer announced earlier this year that it's leaving its longtime home on the Fox lot on Pico Boulevard for New Jersey, chasing the same kind of incentive. Several Fox game shows, including The Floor, Celebrity Name That Tune and Beat Shazam, already shoot overseas in Ireland and Britain.

The numbers behind the exodus

FilmLA, the nonprofit that tracks production in the region, says TV activity in LA fell 27% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, driven largely by fewer reality shoots. Reality production specifically has dropped almost 63% over the last five years.

There was a brief bright spot. California expanded its film and TV tax credit program this year to cover competition shows, and that pushed shoot days up to 676 in the second quarter from 463 in the first. Still, even with that bump, the April-June quarter came in nearly 40% below last year's numbers. One good quarter doesn't undo a five-year slide.

American Idol has been more than just a ratings machine for Los Angeles. It launched on Fox in 2002 and spent years as the biggest show on American television, employing hundreds of crew and production workers every season contestants chased their shot at fame. The most recent season came out of Red Studios in Hollywood. That local footprint is exactly what unions and city officials have been worried about losing.

ABC announced in late July that the show is coming back for its 10th season on the network, with Ryan Seacrest still hosting. Auditions are already underway this week in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, which tells you the production wheels are already turning east regardless of what Los Angeles does next.

Film workers, union leaders and elected officials in California are reportedly scrambling to respond to the broader crisis, though nothing concrete has been announced. Whether that translates into policy sharp enough to pull shows like this back is the question hanging over the next production cycle.