{"id":1639,"date":"2025-03-03T03:01:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T03:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2025-03-03T03:01:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T03:01:18","slug":"carrie-underwood-is-coming-full-circle-nearly-two-decades-after-winning-american-idol-the-country-superstar-is-returning-to-the-show-not-as-a-contestant-but-as-a-judge-abc-has-officially-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=1639","title":{"rendered":"Carrie Underwood is coming full circle! Nearly two decades after winning American Idol, the country superstar is returning to the show\u2014not as a contestant, but as a judge. ABC has officially announced that Underwood will be joining the judging panel for the upcoming season, bringing her powerhouse vocals, industry expertise, and undeniable star power to the competition that launched her career."},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-57072\" class=\"post-57072 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-uncategorized\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<aside class=\"a-article-grid__social a-sticky@desktop-xl u-flex\">\n<div class=\"u-flex u-flex-direction-column@desktop u-margin-lr-auto pmc-u-margin-r-00@tablet\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-57075\" src=\"https:\/\/litanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Thumbs-28-16-300x162.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/litanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Thumbs-28-16-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/litanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Thumbs-28-16.jpg 650w\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" \/><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"a-article-grid__main pmc-a-grid pmc-a-cols3@desktop\">\n<article class=\"pmc-a-grid-item pmc-a-span2@desktop u-max-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"cnx-ad-container cnx-full-height\">\n<div class=\"cnx-ad-bid-slot\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"cnx-ad-slot\">\n<div class=\"cnx-ad-slot\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"a-content pmc-u-line-height-copy pmc-u-font-family-georgia pmc-u-font-size-16 pmc-u-font-size-18@desktop\">\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \"><strong>EXCLUSIVE<\/strong>:\u00a0Carrie Underwood\u00a0is set to remind people of her\u00a0<em>American Idol\u00a0<\/em>origin story ahead of getting behind the judging desk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">The singer is to lead webseries\u00a0<em>Idol to Icon,<\/em>\u00a0which will be released as a companion to the\u00a0ABC show. It will air on YouTube starting on March 4.<\/p>\n<div class=\"d1eA3FJF\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">It comes ahead of the premiere of Season 23 of\u00a0<em>American Idol,<\/em>\u00a0its eighth on ABC, which launches on Sunday March 9 with a special preview following the Oscars on March 2.<\/p>\n<div class=\"dqKkqr06\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">Underwood has had a busy start to the year; in addition to\u00a0replacing Katy Perry on\u00a0<em>Idol<\/em>,\u00a0the eight-time Grammy winner performed at Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration, singing America the Beautiful despite some tech glitches.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">Each episode of\u00a0<em>Idol To Icon<\/em>\u00a0will\u00a0cover a different part of the competition and will roll out throughout the entire season, timed to the corresponding airing for the current season, with the last episode covering her finale memories and ultimate Idol winning moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">Underwood will take viewers back to 2005. She kept a journal throughout her time on Idol and the series will feature her reading exclusive journal entries along with covering fashion highlights and behind-the-scenes confessional moments. This year marks 20 years since she broke through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">She will be joined on\u00a0<em>Idol<\/em>\u00a0by existing judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">Underwood, who has sold around 85M records, is widely considered the most successful of the\u00a0<em>American Idol\u00a0<\/em>winners. She auditioned for the show, which was then on Fox, with Bonnie Raitt\u2019s<em>\u00a0I Can\u2019t Make You Love Me<\/em>\u00a0and her version of\u00a0<em>Alone<\/em>\u00a0was thought to be one of the reasons for her win.<\/p>\n<div id=\"browsi_adWrapper_ai_0_ati_1_rc_0\">\n<div id=\"browsi_adContainer_ai_0_ati_1_rc_0\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/8352\/DHD\/ros\/mid-articleX_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto \">The series is produced by Fremantle and 19 Entertainment. It is hosted by Ryan Seacrest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Carrie Underwood To Lead \u2018American Idol\u2019 Webseries As Singer Joins ABC Show As Judge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D1378VV_yCY\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><ins class=\"982a9496\" data-key=\"22dcba34189d88535c6189416086b46c\"><\/ins><\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXCLUSIVE:\u00a0Carrie Underwood\u00a0is set to remind people of her\u00a0American Idol\u00a0origin story ahead of getting behind the judging desk. The singer is to lead webseries\u00a0Idol to Icon,\u00a0which will be&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}