American Idol season 23: Kelly Clarkson will not replace Katy Perry

Who will be the new judge for American Idol season 23? The rumor mill is already hard at work trying to figure this out. Katy Perry first revealed she would be leaving months ago and by virtue of that, you can argue that ABC has had plenty of time to figure this out.

So, with that in mind, have they figured it out? If so, they aren’t announcing anything, and instead various pop stars are getting thrown out there. An obvious one is Kelly Clarkson, given that she was the season 1 winner and beyond just that, she has previously coached on The Voice. Yet, this is not going to happen. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the Daytime Emmy Awards, Clarkson indicated that her main focus is being around her kids on the East Coast at this point:

“I can’t do that, only because I promised my kids. I was like, ‘I wanna be there as much as I possibly can.’ And it would put me in L.A., and that’s why I had to quit The Voice, which I love that team. And I miss them so much.”

Given that Kelly also moved her talk show to New York, that’s a pretty big indicator that this is where her priorities lie these days.

Who else is in the running?

If Luke Bryan wasn’t there, we wonder if Carrie Underwood would be a candidate — we just can’t see them doing two country artists on a three-judge panel. It will almost certainly be a woman, and the show could circle back to a Jennifer Lopez or try to bring in someone who has not served as a judge on the show before. Finding the right person is not easy, given you have to think about name recognition, chemistry, and then also budget at the same time.

Who do you want to see be a judge on American Idol season 23?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to come back — there are a lot of other updates on the way.

This article was written by Jessica BunBun.