Carrie Underwood Reveals Her Honest Reaction to Hearing Katy Perry Was Leaving ‘Idol’

When Katy Perry first revealed in early 2024 that season 22 of “American Idol” would be her last as a judge on the show after seven seasons, fans flooded social media with shock and concern over who would replace her. Turns out country superstar and season five winner Carrie Underwood was equally curious — and interested in the job right away.

On February 28, 2025, Underwood told TV Insider, “When I heard (she was leaving), I thought, ‘I wonder if they would ever call me!'”

Producers did come calling, and Underwood was named the show’s first-ever winner-turned-judge in August. By October, she was filming her first auditions — which she’s said brought up lots of memories from her own journey — alongside host Ryan Seacrest and fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, all of whom have sung her praises. Even Perry has weighed in with her seal of approval.

Katy Perry Thinks Carrie Underwood Will Have ‘A Lot to Offer’ Contestants

Photo Credit: ABC - Eric Liebowitz

With the new season of “Idol” due to premiere on March 9, Perry — who was a judge on the show from 2018 to 2024 — has said she thinks Underwood was the perfect choice to replace her.

“She was born on that show,” Perry told People in January. “I think she knows how to steer it. She actually truly knows … what it feels like to be in their shoes. We could only metaphorically feel that as judges.”

Perry continued, “As artists, we’ve been in some sort of their shoes, but she has lived every single day. So I think she’s going to have a lot to offer anyone that’s willing to listen.”

Perry’s assessment has been proven right, according to Bryan, who told Extra TV, “It’s going great. Carrie and I had always been, you know, in the business together, but we never spent much time together. So to sit behind the desk and watch her really learn how to transition out of, like, being the winner of ‘American Idol’ and a superstar to, like, being the judge at the table. … She’s doing good.”

Carrie Underwood Says Audition Process Has Brought Back Many Memories of Her Own ‘Idol’ Journey

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Returning to “Idol” as a judge has been a nostalgic journey for Underwood. She told TV Insider that the memories came flooding back as she watched singers audition and attended Hollywood Week at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles — the very place she went through the week-long boot camp two decades earlier.

“At 21 years old, I’d never been on a plane, never seen anything quite like it,” she told the outlet. “It seemed so grand and massive, and there were so many other contestants. Now I’m sitting at that judges’ table watching them. I’ll see somebody sing and think, ‘Oooh, this is the Bo Bice of this year.’ It’s impossible not to be a bit nostalgic.”

But turning away some “Idol” hopefuls has proved difficult for Underwood, just as it did initially for Richie and Bryan when they joined the show in 2018.

Richie told TV Insider, “It was the same thing we went through: How do I say that many nos? (Carrie) was a nervous wreck.”

The R&B legend said he still sometimes worries about the contestants, admitting, “I go home some nights going, ‘OK, how can I help this contestant?’ We get so invested in their stories and lives that we almost become the parents. We want for them to win in life.”