Carrie Underwood and American Idol are like two long-ago lovers who fall into each other’s arms once again after charging through life’s highs and lows.

They’ve lived and learned, laughed and cried and — at about the same time, it turns out — started to wonder what’s next after the landscape they grew up on shifted beneath their feet.

After all these years apart, they’re finally right for one another.

• Underwood was officially announced as American Idol’s newest judge on Thursday (Aug. 1).
• She’ll join Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie for Season 23 (Season 8 on ABC) in 2025.
• Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are thought to have been two other stars in the running to replace Katy Perry.

Related: 10 Things American Idol Doesn’t Want You to Know

Why Carrie Underwood Needs American Idol

It’s a great move for Underwood, personally. By joining American Idol, she gets a fixed schedule with predictable travel while boosting her transition from country superstar to pop culture icon. The show’s ratings are not what they used to be, but six million people every Sunday and Monday night is nothing to sneeze at.

If you’ve followed her on social media, you’ve figured out that family and home life are her top priorities right now. Photos of produce and farm animals have replaced anything that looked like a sophisticated music marketing strategy. Her boys are nine and five, and she doesn’t want to be a tour bus mom.

Can you blame her?

Professionally, this move will either mark a turning point or a continuation in a new direction set by a turning point we all missed. With a Las Vegas residency, several themed musical projects, out-of-genre collaborations and now television, it’s clear Underwood is entering the Reba McEntire phase of her career.

This means she’s not going to be defined by country radio, where she hasn’t had a No. 1 airplay hit (from her album) since “Church Bells” in 2016. Nor will she be defined by streams or downloads, where she’s never thrived like she did when CDs were the thing.

It’d be foolish to count her out, but with multiple Entertainer of the Year wins, Grand Ole Opry membership and a decade-plus as the most influential female in the genre, her place in the Hall of Fame is secure. New challenges are always tempting for someone with Underwood’s competitive drive.

It’s hard to say if appearing on American Idol will boost her profile at country radio. It hasn’t for McEntire, and Luke Bryan’s pace didn’t surge once he joined the ABC team. What is likely is tangential TV work.

The CMA Awards are on ABC, and her participation in the show the last few years has been underwhelming. That could change. Go ahead, allow a little hope that the best hosting duo of all time could return in 2025.

For a decade, Underwood has produced the theme song for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, but ABC/ESPN have a pretty good football program, too.

Don’t be surprised if she’s replaced on NBC but pops up during Monday Night Football pre-games, or with Peyton Manning during the MNF alternate telecast. Once again we can look at McEntire (or even Kelly Clarkson) for how this works — both have been very successful under the peacock since joining The Voice.

Why American Idol Needs Carrie Underwood

After Underwood won American Idol in 2005, the show’s ratings moved along an arc similar to Underwood’s career. There was an immediate surge that lasted through the 2011 season. Slowly, things began to taper off after that — Variety shares that Season 22 nabbed 5.8 million Sunday night viewers, down from 25 million 12 years prior.

Since ABC took over from Fox (and Bryan, Perry and Richie took over as judges), ratings have dropped about 40 percent. So, yeah — it was time for a change, even if that drop is in line with what other non-scripted shows have experienced (The Voice reached about seven million viewers last season, down from 12.4 for 2016-17).

Segmented demographics of Idol‘s audience are difficult to come by, but a 2018 study by Civic Science showed that the show’s voters lean older and country. This makes sense, as three of eight ABC winners have been country and several others (Colin Stough, Gabby Barrett) have gone on to sign contracts with country record labels.

The Voice has been stacking country judges (McEntire, Dan + Shay, Kelsea Ballerini) since Blake Shelton’s departure. Adding a second country judge to the American Idol panel is simply a survival tactic, because at the end of the day, Carrie Underwood’s fans are far more likely to sit in front of the television for two hours of live television than Justin Bieber’s.

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.