Kelly Clarkson’s much-hyped “American Idol” reunion aired on her talk show yesterday, with Kelly welcoming original judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, as well as runner-up Justin Guarini. And while they may have been nice because it was her show. Simon gave Kelly credit for launching the hit show.
“I actually genuinely do not believe we would be sitting here today if you hadn’t entered the show that day,” Simon shared. “The whole premise of this show was, we had to find a star who was going to sell records. We found some great people that whole year but when you delivered that moment on that first live show and when you sang that winning song at the end." Paula added, “it was a game changer.”
Jackson noted that after Kelly’s win, “We looked at each other at the end of the finale and said, ‘Wow, this thing is really going to work.’ I think that is the moment that we knew.”
- The group also reminisced about the bad auditions, talked about successful former contestants and the judges revealed they used to play a game with each other during the show, in which they had to try and incorporate a certain word into their on-air critiques. And the prize was pretty substantial, with Paula revealing that they got to use Simon’s credit card for 10 minutes if they were successful.