Carrie Underwood was admittedly nervous when she took the stage for her 2004 American Idol audition. “He’s scary,” she said, gesturing to notoriously hard-to-please judge Simon Cowell. However, the small-town Oklahoma woman’s throaty rendition of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” won the approval of not only Cowell, but fellow judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. Since going on to a landslide victory in the season 4 finale, Underwood has leveraged her Idol fame to become one of the most successful female country artists of all time.
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Now, the “Before He Cheats” singer has returned to the show that kickstarted her career. But this time, she’s on the other side of the podium, joining fellow judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. And not everyone approves of the way Underwood, 42, doles out criticism to the artists standing where she once stood. However, the nine-time CMA Award winner insists that her judging style comes from a good place.
“Sometimes I get in trouble from people like, ‘How dare she say that it wasn’t perfect?’” Underwood admitted during a Sept. 24 interview with Sirius XM’s The Highway. “And I’m like, I just want everybody to learn and that’s part of it. And nobody wants to just hear that they’re amazing all the time.”
Well, maybe some people do. But hearing exclusively positive feedback won’t do aspiring artists any favors once they manage to break into the music industry, Underwood said.
“We just want everybody to be able to grow and get better, and be the most awesome version of themselves that they could be,” explained the eight-time Grammy Award winner.
Carrie Underwood Returns to ‘American Idol’
Carrie Underwood joined the American Idol judging panel in 2024, replacing exiting judge Katy Perry. In a May 2025 interview with TV Line, showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick described watching the season 4 champ “carve out her own role.”
“She was stepping into the shoes of a former judge, but she needed to be her own person, and she definitely did that,” Wolflick said. “I think she brought a nostalgia factor, and I also like that she brought a little criticism and constructive feedback, which is very much needed.”
The “Somethin’ Bad” singer will return to ABC for season 24 alongside Bryan and Richie in 2026.
Featured image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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