Clarkson wants to ‘light up America’s life’
For nearly two decades, Kelly Clarkson has connected with fans through the power and prowess of her singing voice — swaddling them through heartbreak, empowering them beyond that heartbreak, and beaming with them through new love. So it’s little wonder how much Clarkson has been able to build on that connection lately. With help from Wi-fi.
As work on most television shows was suspended in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 38-year-old entertainer was part of two series that pressed on remotely. From a ranch (with poor plumbing) in Montana, where Clarkson took refuge with her family early on in the health crisis, she powered up her tech and offered her y’all-peppered critiques as a coach on “The Voice.” At the same time, just months into her debut as a daytime talk-show host with “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” she and her team found themselves scrambling to produce athome editions of the show.
As she explains it: “I am that kid that adapts to whatever environment.”
So for months now, her approachable charm and BFF energy have been confined, but not dimmed, by a rectangular box on screen, whether she’s covering Lisa Loeb’s 1994 heartbreak stunner “Stay (I Missed You)” as part of her Kellyoke opening segment or shrieking with excitement when “Goonies” star Sean Astin makes a surprise cameo during her interview with Josh Gad. And wait, she’s not wearing makeup? Cool, me neither!
Maybe that’s why talking to her now over Zoom doesn’t feel all that weird.
That Clarkson, a superstar TV helped create, would find a second wave of career success in television isn’t all that surprising. Eighteen years after 15.5 million viewers voted to ensure the Burleson, Texas, native was crowned the first “American Idol,” many of those same fans are tuning in to her now.
She is gearing up for her sixth season as judge on “The Voice,” which returns next month. And with “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” she has emerged as a bright spot in the increasingly hard-to-crack daytime talk-show space — the program was the most-watched new talk show in seven years, averaging more than 1.6 million viewers daily.
At a time when asking anyone how they’re doing can feel like a loaded question, Clarkson says she feels “surprisingly great” — at least that’s the forecast for today. As we’ve all come to know, there are good days and there are bad days. Producing a show remotely from Montana, while trying to process the realities of the pandemic, was challenging.
“That was not fun,” she says. “I’m trying to smile and light up America’s life (and) I’m just wanting to drown myself in the creek next to me. ... I do remember, right before then, I was, like, ‘Look, at some point, people in the limelight are humans, too, and we’re all going through the same roller coaster as everyone else. So sometimes I don’t want to smile.’ I was honest about that. It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s all relative to your own world.” Even now, like many parents, the back-to-school season is on her mind. Her son, Remington Alexander, 4, is back in school, while her daughter, River Rose, 6, will have online classes through October.
“I think we really forget how hard this is on (children),” she says. “My kid has been in school now and he has been seeing other kids — his whole disposition has changed. There’s just a different lightness to him. ... It’s a really hard thing to navigate right now: to be honest with them but not so honest that it’s overwhelming and scary.” While her kids are getting used to a new routine, Clarkson will hardly have had a break as she gears up for the new season of her talk show, which will take on a hybrid format, with live and virtual interviews with guests as well as a virtual audience.