Carrie Underwood isn’t afraid of being booed when audiences don’t agree with her. She’s not on American Idol to lavish unconditional praise on contestants. Her job is to offer constructive criticism to help singers improve, and fellow judge Luke Bryan has her back.
During an April 8 visit to the American Idol Official Podcast, host Danielle Fishel asked Carrie how she felt about the sometimes aggressive audience response to her opinions.
“You gave some very constructive criticism about some moments that you thought were very magical,” Danielle said. “And then maybe some moments where it wasn’t so good … you got booed.” To which Carrie responded, “I don’t care.”
The American Idol judges appeared on the show’s official podcast
That’s when Luke jumped into the conversation to give his take on presenting criticism to contestants. “It’s tough to do as a judge,” he said. “It takes a lot of confidence in yourself … You don’t want to say something that’s going to tank them in the competition. It’s just something that they need to be thinking about if they go forward.”
Nevertheless, Carrie stands by her goal to always be honest. “I can’t lie, I’m a terrible liar,” she admitted. “As a fan of the show, if there was ever somebody that kind of had an off night and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, my God that’s so great,’ I’m sitting at home being like, ‘What? Liars!’”
“You want them to pay attention to those things going forward,” she added. “They’re obviously talented or they wouldn’t be here right now.”
Meanwhile, the audience responded with boos at Carrie’s criticism, but Luke immediately came to her defense. “She only won this [show in 2005],” he said. “She knows.”
In the list of most successful AI winners, Carrie comes in at a respectable Number 2, right behind the show’s first winner, Kelly Clarkson.
American Idol airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC. It streams the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
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