Watch "American Idol 2020" online tonight and you will witness the first remote finale in the history of the reality singing competition. This American Idol 2020 finale will be memorable not only for its unique format.

American Idol 2020 was forced to adapt the competition after the pandemic shut down film and television production in Hollywood. Idol was broadcast remotely beginning in late April, with contestants and judges filming from their homes. Performances were pre-recorded, but the judges' reactions and voting results were broadcast live.

The American Idol 2020 finale begins with the top seven contestants: Julia Gargano, Arthur Gunn, Dillon James, Just Sam, Louis Knight, Francisco Martin, and Johnny West. Two of them will be eliminated based on last week's vote.

The top five will perform two songs, the first celebrating their advancement to the final round and the second a song they performed earlier this season. Real-time voting during the live East Coast broadcast will determine the show's outcome. The winner of American Idol 2020 will then debut a new official single.

The finale will feature performances by judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan, as well as top artists including Oscar-nominated singer and actress Cynthia Erivo. She will cover Aretha Franklin's hits along with this year's Top 11. Rascal Flatts and Doug Kyker will also team up to perform "Bless The Broken Road".

Brian and Perry will sing their respective singles "One Margarita" and "Daisies." Meanwhile, Richie performs "We Are The World" on television for the first time in 35 years, and fellow judges and Idol alumni Alejandro Aranda (aka Scarypoolparty), Gabby Barrett, Jordyn Sparks, Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Layne Hardy, Lauren Alaina, Phillip Phillips, Ruben Studdard, and Scotty McCreery for help.

Here's everything you need to know about how to watch the American Idol 2020 finale online.

Just because ABC isn't available everywhere doesn't mean Americans need to miss the American Idol 2020 finale if they are away from home. With a proper VPN (Virtual Private Network), it is very easy to watch along with the rest of the Internet and stream the show wherever you are.

We evaluated many VPN services and our top pick is ExpressVPN. It meets the VPN needs of many users and offers excellent compatibility with most devices and great connection speeds. It's also reasonably priced at $12.95/month. (The cost drops even lower if you sign up for a long-term contract of 6 months or a year.)

For American viewers, the finale of "American Idol 2020" airs today (May 17) at 8 p.m. Eastern time on ABC. If you have an antenna or cable subscription, you can take advantage of this broadcast network. Yes, Idol has left Fox. We are surprised, too.

If you cut cable, you can watch the American Idol 2020 finale live on several live TV streaming services, including Hulu With Live TV, YouTube TV, and AT&T TV Now.

Of these options, we recommend Hulu, which also offers original programming like High Fidelity and Little Fires Everywhere, with a one-week free trial; YouTube TV has an unlimited cloud DVR for those who want to record everything. AT&T TV Now is not recommended.

Canadians are lucky. You can watch the American Idol 2020 finale the same day and time it airs in the US: Sunday, May 17 at 8 p.m. on CTV and the CTV app.

The good news is that Brits can watch the American Idol 2020 finale on Netflix UK. The bad news is that it won't be available until two days after it airs in the US.

If you're an American in the UK and don't want to miss the finale episode, check out ExpressVPN.

Sorry for those of you in Australia, but no Australian channels are airing American Idol 2020. If you want to watch with people from all over the world, you should definitely check out ExpressVPN.