Foto: ABC
Carrie Underwood says “I don’t care,” if she gets booed by the audience on American Idol.
Underwood and her fellow Idol judges, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, joined host Danielle Fishel on the American Idol official podcast after the show’s ‘90s Night earlier this week. Fishel brought up that Underwood, who won the show’s fourth season in 2005, “got booed” for offering constructive criticism during the show.
“It was like rumblings. It wasn’t like a hard ‘boo,’ but I could feel it coming,” Underwood said with a laugh. “I don’t care!”
Bryan said giving constructive criticism is “it’s tough to do as a judge.” He said the feedback is never intended to “tank them in the competition,” but to share “something that they need to be thinking about,” moving forward.
“And I can’t lie. I’m a terrible liar,” Underwood added. “As a fan of the show, if there was ever somebody that kind of had an off night, and everybody’s like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s so great!’ I’m sitting at home being like, ‘what? Liars!’ You want them to pay attention to those things going forward. they’re obviously talented, or they wouldn’t be here right now.”
Underwood, who returned to the show as a judge 20 years after her career-launching victory, previously shared on X, formerly Twitter, that she gets “booed A LOT from our Hollywood Week audience.” She added later, “Boo me. I don’t care.”
Find the full American Idol podcast episode on iHeartRadio here.
American Idol airs on ABC on Monday nights from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET/PT. It’s available to stream the next day on Hulu.
Bryan is part of the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival. The show also includes Carly Pearce, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Riley Green, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew, Lauren Alaina and special guest George Birge. iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones is returning as the event’s host. The show will take place on May 2 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Tickets to the show are available as of January 23. Fans across the country will be able to catch all the action as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival will be broadcast live across iHeartCountry stations nationwide and the free iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT).