When American Idol returns for Season 23 on the 2025 TV schedule, Carrie Underwood will make her debut as a judge 20 years after she won the fourth season of the show. The contestants who stand in front of her, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, however, will likely have a different experience than Underwood did back in 2005. The judges back then were not afraid to give constructive criticism — with a strong emphasis on criticism. Clay Aiken, the Season 2 runner-up, is actually grateful he experienced the show in that era and explained why he’s glad the judges were tougher back then.
When Clay Aiken competed on American Idol, he faced the infamous trio of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, and he told US Weekly that he feels that their honest feedback helped him to become so successful. Aiken said:
We cared what the judges said, not only because we didn’t want them to say something mean, but also because we would take it and then go back and next week say. ‘Don’t do this again.’ Or they said, ‘I’m singing too many ballads. Sing something uptempo.’ You would make a point to improve yourself.
It wasn’t just him, either, but Clay Aiken says if you look back at several of the most famous American Idol contestants, you can see the artists being shaped over the course of the season, starting with the very first winner Kelly Clarkson. Aiken continued:
I appreciate the criticism. Another thing that I think made the show great was you could see growth in [season 1 winner] Kelly [Clarkson] from the time she walked in that studio, that audition, till the time she made it to the end. You can see growth in me, in Ruben [Studdard]. Ruben stopped wearing the jerseys after a certain point. Fantasia [Barrino] grew. And a lot of that was because we would get criticism every week.
Clay Aiken, who finished Season 2 in second place behind Ruben Studdard, said he doesn’t see that kind of improvement in the current contestants, and Idol could save a lot of time if they skipped over the “45 to 50 seconds where they’re all going to say, ‘You did a lovely job and you’re a great star.'” Aiken thinks the singers would benefit from being challenged a little.
Simon Cowell was largely considered the meanest of the original American Idol judges, but there’s a chance that rudeness was faked for TV. Randy Jackson, meanwhile, agrees with Clay Aiken and has spoken out about singing competition judges being too nice. Even Katy Perry — who was definitely not always nice to the contestants — had said she hoped whoever followed her wouldn’t be afraid to speak their mind and actually have a point of view.
It sounds like when Carrie Underwood officially replaces Katy Perry, she hopes to bring a good blend of the old and the new. The “Before He Cheats” artist said her judging philosophy is to be “honest and constructive but still kind.” We still have a couple of months before we see what that looks like. American Idol Season 23 will premiere at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, March 9, on ABC.
