LIVE with Kelly and Mark

You have to have at least one nice judge, though, right?

The new season of American Idol premiers this Sunday, March 9th on ABC, and Carrie Underwood is back on the show in a completely new capacity, as a judge, 20 years after winning the show in 2005 and having a very successful career in country music. She will join returning judges Lionel Richie and her fellow country music star Luke Bryan, and they seem like a trio with great chemistry already from the clips and interviews I’ve seen.

Fans seem excited that she make a homecoming of sorts too, and during an appearance on LIVE with Kelly and Mark yesterday morning, Lionel revealed that Carrie is having a hard time saying “no” to some of the contestants at the auditions (which are the best part to watch, in my humble opinion), and pretty much had to grit her teeth saying it to the first few they turned down.

He says they started off strong with a lot of “yes” and people going to Hollywood, but it was obviously only a matter of time until they were going to have to start turning people down:

“I have to tell you, Carrie’s biggest nightmare was, as long as you can say, ‘Oh my God, you go through! Oh my God, you go through! Fantastic! Oh, you go through!’ We were waiting, because she’s gotta tell someone ‘No.’ and she almost had a nervous breakdown.

I’m telling you, she said, ‘Oh, he’s so cute.’ I said, ‘Carrie, do what you have to do.’ ‘She’s so nice.’ ‘Carrie, do what you have to do.’ And then finally she said, ‘I’m gonna have to tell you…. no. Not right now. Not now.’”

Carrie joked that she would try to soften the blow saying they should “come back,” and that it’s just a no “right now”:

“Not right now, you come back!” 

Like I said, somebody has to let them down easy, and I can totally sympathize with her struggle to let these young singers down (even if they are bad). Many of them probably watched her on Idol and look up to her as a very successful artist now, so that only makes it more difficult to say no, I would imagine.

The only thing that would make it harder would be if you had to say no to someone who sang your song, and while I’m sure we’ll see some bad covers, Idol shared a preview of one contestants audition who delivered a beautiful rendition of “Jesus Take The Wheel,” and Carrie actually cried during Brianna Nix’s audition.

It’s unclear yet whether or not she got a ticket to Hollywood, but based on Carrie’s reaction alone, I would bet that’s likely what happened…

I think Carrie will make a great addition to the judging panel, and clearly brings not only experience in the music industry, but also from the show specifically, that will be invaluable for the contestants. I’ll be honest, though, I do miss when Simon Cowell was just ripping people to shreds on national television. It was mean, but dang if it wasn’t entertaining TV, and you always had Paula Abdul right there to help soften the blow, so to speak, which it sounds like Carrie is already great at.

Here’s the clip from LIVE with Kelly and Mark with Carrie, Lionel and Luke:

And Brianna’s audition video: