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The Kelly Clarkson Show will continue to sing through 2025.
NBCUniversal has renewed the syndicated daytime talk show for two additional seasons, taking the series fronted by the former American Idol breakout through its sixth season in 2025.
“Kelly Clarkson is one of the brightest stars of our time,” said Tracie Wilson, exec vp syndicated studios and E! News at NBCUniversal. “With more than 500 hours viewed on broadcast, cable and digital platforms since its launch, The Kelly Clarkson Show has been a home for stories that entertain, inspire important conversations and connect with loyal viewers across multiple generations in meaningful ways. Together, with our best-in-class producing team, we’ll continue to build on the show’s success and legacy.”
In its fourth season, The Kelly Clarkson Show has its largest station lineup yet as it airs in all 211 local markets in premier time periods across the country. The series is averaging 1.3 million viewers since its September return. That makes it the only syndicated talk show to grow in consecutive seasons — a feat not accomplished since 2014. The show is posting year-over-year double-digit gains in adults 25-54 in many top markets.
“As the fourth season reaches new heights of critical acclaim and viewership, Kelly has used her genuine warmth and natural curiosity to create an engaging, fun show. The Kelly Clarkson Show is a treasured part of our programming lineup, and we’re enthusiastic about its continued longevity,” said Valari Staab, chairman of NBCUniversal Local.
Clarkson hosts and exec produces the Daytime Emmy-winning series, with Alex Duda as showrunner.
The renewal comes amid a new wave of syndicated talk shows entering the market following the departure of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Another American Idol breakout, Jennifer Hudson, launched her show from Ellen producers Warner Bros. TV this season as the landscape also features programs fronted by Drew Barrymore, Karamo, Rachael Ray, Sherri Shepherd, Steve Wilkos and Tamron Hall.
This story originally appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
You can stand under Kelly Clarkson‘s umbrella, ella, ella. For the Monday (Nov. 7) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the three-time Grammy winner performed a Kellyoke cover of Rihanna‘s 2007 smash hit “Umbrella” and added a rock n’ roll twist.
Equipped with electric guitars and pushed forward by thundering drums, Clarkson and her band Y’all reconstructed the song’s original pop mix into a hardcore free-for-all. “You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh,” belted the “Stronger” singer as one guitarist shredded out a solo, blue stage lights made to look like lightning strobing all around.
Released as the lead single off her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad, “Umbrella” marked Rihanna’s second of 14 (so far) Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s (following 2006’s “SOS”). Featuring Jay-Z, who also helped write the track, it went on to earn the Fenty Beauty mogul her first ever Grammy award, winning best rap/sung collaboration in 2008. At that year’s ceremony, “Umbrella” was also nominated for record of the year, though Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson’s “Rehab” ended up taking the prize.
Clarkson’s cover comes just after Rihanna made her return to music following a six-year hiatus. On Oct. 28, she released “Lift Me Up,” a single she contributed to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever film soundtrack.
The “Love on the Brain” musician hasn’t performed live in nearly as many years as she went without releasing music, but that’s also set to change come Super Bowl Sunday next year. In September, it was announced that Ri would be headlining the Halftime Show, something she recently opened up about feeling nervous for.
“The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, it’s an entertainer’s dream to be on a stage like that,” she said in a Monday (Nov. 7) interview. “But it’s nerve-racking. You want to get it right. You know, everybody’s watching. And they’re rooting for you. And I want to get it right.”
Watch Kelly Clarkson perform Rihanna’s “Umbrella” above.
The Masked Singer is slowly whittling down its season eight contestants, and with the arrival of a ’90s-themed episode on Sunday night (Nov. 6), there were two contestants whose identities were revealed. Both Milkshake and Walrus were sent packing, but not before sharing who they are and giving a final exit interview before leaving the show.
Walrus was the first contestant to leave The Masked Singer after failing to secure enough votes to stay on the singing competition. The unmasking revealed that the Walrus was none other than Joey Lawrence, star of ’90s sitcom Blossom and of “Can’t Fix My Love” fame. The track appeared on the actor’s self-titled debut album that was released in 1993, and it later peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Speaking of his experience on the show, Lawrence said, “It’s not about winning. I thought it would be fun for my girls to see at some point. I have two beautiful daughters, and being anonymous and having to look like Daft Punk walking around the set is always fun.”
The actor and singer also shared that being on The Masked Singer is making him consider coming back to music. “I haven’t released a full record in about 20 years, but music brings back this memory of why this whole journey began for me,” he added. “I am seriously thinking about dedicating a lot more of my time to music. Gotta use the stuff god gave you, so maybe I’ll get back into it.”
Milkshake was the second contestant to leave The Masked Singer night after a sing-off against the Lambs to “What Is Love,” by Haddaway. Le’Veon Bell, an NFL running back and free agent, was revealed to be behind the mask. Though Bell is an athlete, in 2017 he dabbled in music with songs uploaded to SoundCloud and later released an album in 2019 titled Life’s a Gamble.
“I did The Masked Singer because I watch it a lot and my friends were on it, and it’s a good opportunity to showcase my talent musically. A lot of people look at me on the field or boxing. I think this was a good opportunity on the show, I could entertain and people didn’t even know it was me. I think that kinda opened up people’s eyes a little bit,” he said in his exit interview. “Watching them try to guess who I was, that was entertaining too. It was ranging from all types of artists and athletes: T.I. got brought up, LL Cool J, Ice Cube. The praise from the judges, I appreciate it and I’m glad I went up there performing what I did.”
Watch Walrus and Milkshake’s unmaskings and exit interviews below.
Steve Lacy brought his low-key charm to Saturday Night Live on Nov. 5.
The 24-year-old singer-guitarist performed two songs from his second solo album, Gemini Rights, during his musical guest debut on the NBC sketch comedy series.
Lacy, the breakout solo star who originally gained fame as a member of alt-soul band The Internet, opened with his slow-burning hits “Bad Habit” and closed with “Helmet.” Sporting his Batman-esque signature shades and wearing a shiny white button-down emblazoned with the letter “S,” the artist strummed away at his electric guitar with the help of a backing band on both tracks.
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Lacy is fresh off a major career high, earning his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. About three months after the release of Gemini Rights in July, the album’s lead single “Bad Habit” ascended to the top of the Hot 100, where it remained for three weeks until being usurped by Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy.”
The “Dark Red” singer’s SNL debut arrived one week after Jack Harlow took on double duty, serving as both the evening’s host and musical guest on Oct. 29. The next episode of SNL will feature returning host Dave Chappelle with musical guest Black Star on Nov. 12.
Watch Lacy’s SNL performances below, and see the full episode on Hulu here. The streaming service is currently offering a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for here. The show is also live streamed on Peacock.
Mariah Carey brought some holiday cheer to The Tonight Show.
The iconic singer-songwriter paid a visit to host Jimmy Fallon on Friday (Nov. 4) to promote her new children’s book, The Christmas Princess, and her upcoming Christmas concerts in Toronto and New York.
During her sit-down with Fallon, the “All I Want for Christmas Is You” songstress dished on her friendship with Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown and confirmed that the pair has a secret collaboration in the works.
In late October, the 18-year-old actress revealed on The Tonight Show that she’s recorded music with the Elusive Chanteuse. While noting that Carey casually breaks into whistle tone while they eat Chinese food, Brown also let slip that the pair “have sung together… like in her studio sung together.”
Carey addressed her potential team-up with Brown, telling Fallon, “Maybe it’s not just musical. I don’t know. I can’t say what it is.”
The actress has, in fact, already collaborated with Carey in recent weeks by recreating the opening scene of the iconic “Honey” music video to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Carey’s 1997 album, Butterfly. Back in 2020, Mimi also shared a photo of the stars hanging out.
Later in the show, Carey and Fallon appeared in a comical sketch, titled “The Naughty List,” where Carey gifts the host a free copy of her children’s book after discussing why he’s on Santa’s naughty list.
Watch Carey’s interview and “Naughty List’ skit with Fallon below.
“Weird Al” Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe are big fans of each other.
While promoting his new biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the award-winning artist got candid about why he wanted to recruit the Harry Potter actor to play him, saying he had the “right energy for it.”
“I’m a big fan of Dan’s. He does amazing dramatic acting and amazing comedic acting, and he gets it,” Yankovic tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I mean, I knew that he’s a huge comedy fan. He’s a huge nerd, just like me, and I knew that he would just really lock into the tone that we were going for in this movie, which is so important.”
It wasn’t as important to Yankovic that Radcliffe wasn’t an “exact physical doppelganger” because the film is meant to be a parody of biopics, and it was more important for the star to be able to grasp that than to look exactly like the main character.
“I just thought that he would just really be able to capture the spirit of the character that we’ve written for the movie,” he says.
Radcliffe didn’t realize Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was supposed to be a parody until he began reading the script. When he initially got it, he wasn’t sure why he was being asked to read for this role.
“I was already a big ‘Weird Al’ fan, and I was confused about why they would ask me to play him in a movie of his life because I was like, ‘I don’t look very much like him,’” Radcliffe tells THR. “But then I read it, and I was like, ‘Oh, right. It’s fine. We’re not doing that. We’re doing something different, and it doesn’t matter.’”
However, it didn’t take very long for him to realize that there’s nothing else a “Weird Al” biopic could be other than a parody of biopics.
“Seeing that and seeing how well they’d like done that joke, and then talking to them and being like, ‘Yeah, Eric Appel is lovely. Al seems lovely,’” says Radcliffe. “You just want to make a movie with these guys.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is now streaming for free on Roku.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Wakanda forever! The soundtrack to Black Panther‘s latest installment arrived on streaming on Friday (Nov. 4), ahead of the movie’s release in theaters across the globe on Nov. 11.
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The soundtrack — officially titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By — features a star-studded list of contributors, which was unveiled on Wednesday (Nov. 2). Tems, Fireboy DML, OG DAYV, Future, CKay, PinkPantheress, E-40 and more are on the OST, including Rihanna and her glimmering track, “Lift Me Up.”
“Lift Me Up” — the lead single from the soundtrack — is a tribute to the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 at 43 after a battle with colon cancer. The song sees the pop star going the ballad route, accompanied by an acoustic guitar as she sings “Lift me up/ Hold me down/ Keep me close/ Safe and sound” on the chorus.
Following the Oct. 28 release of “Lift Me Up,” the track landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s relaunched Hot Trending Songs chart, powered by Twitter and sponsored by Xfinity Mobile, dated Nov. 5.
“Ryan [Cooler] and I talked about the importance of creating an immersive journey of sound and voice,” said the soundtrack’s co-producer, Ludwig Göransson, in a press release. “If we used a song in the film, we wanted it to be the entire song, and to be connected to the story. Thematically, we wanted to move the audience from grief to celebration. When you listen to the soundtrack, you can close your eyes and relive the experience of the movie. That was the intention.”
Listen to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By below.
While Selena Gomez has always been open about her struggles with mental health, lupus, heartbreak and the highs and lows of fame, but fans got a closer look than ever in her new, aptly titled AppleTV+ documentary, My Mind & Me, which hits the streaming service on Friday (Nov. 4).
The Alek Keshishian-helmed film is a raw look at mental health, pulling back the curtain of fame to reveal a young woman who is actively working on her complicated relationship with loving and accepting herself. “It’s OK to feel not good enough and to feel like you’re complicated and complex. It’s just about having a healthy relationship with how you talk to yourself, how you seek help, how you talk to other people,” Gomez said at the Los Angeles premiere of the film, of what she hopes people will take from the film. “I hope this starts a chain reaction of people saying, ‘Hey, I want to say something about my mental health. I want to talk about it and seek help.’ That’s one of the bravest things someone can do. Even if just one person is impacted by this film, I would consider myself the luckiest girl.”
Ahead of the film’s official release, we’ve compiled the most revealing moments. See below.
Selena Gomez introduced the world to the complexities of her mind and mental health through her new, aptly titled AppleTV+ documentary, My Mind & Me, which held its premiere at AFI Festival in Los Angeles, Calif., on Wednesday night (Nov. 2).
“I was going to release this documentary multiple times and it never really felt right,” the star told Billboard on the red carpet at the event. “Then the pandemic hit and a lot of people started having conversations around mental health, the isolation, people feeling depressed or anxious — never feeling those feelings before but have now. I just hope that this will carry on to something like a conversation that people will use to help later on.”
The theme of connection and starting a conversation rang true throughout the film, as Gomez sought healing from her bipolar disorder and lupus diagnoses as well as her 2017 kidney transplant through spending time with others — whether that be her best friend Raquelle Stevens, her childhood neighbors in Grand Prairie, Texas, or the children of Kenya during a 2019 philanthropic visit.
The Alek Keshishian-helmed film is a raw look at mental health, pulling back the curtain of fame to reveal a young woman who is actively working on her complicated relationship with loving and accepting herself. It’s rare to see a high-profile star show the more uncomfortable versions of herself to a global audience, allowing a camera crew to film her as she cries over her insecurities, undergoes a medical IV therapy for lupus and speaks at length about what it’s like to have a psychological disorder.
At one point in the documentary, Gomez likens learning about her bipolar disorder to reading about thunder and lightning as a child to help subside her fear of storms — which is a lesson she told Billboard she still uses to this day. “Knowledge eliminates fear in my opinion, because then you start having a relationship with your mental health, so I would suggest to learn as much as you can,” she shared as her advice to those going through similar struggles that she has gone through.
At an onstage Q&A following the premiere, Gomez elaborated on that same thought. “It’s OK to feel not good enough and to feel like you’re complicated and complex. It’s just about having a healthy relationship with how you talk to yourself, how you seek help, how you talk to other people,” she said of what she hopes people will take from the film. “I hope this starts a chain reaction of people saying, ‘Hey, I want to say something about my mental health. I want to talk about it and seek help.’ That’s one of the bravest things someone can do. Even if just one person is impacted by this film, I would consider myself the luckiest girl.”
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me is out on Apple TV+ starting Friday (Nov. 4).
When filmmaker Alek Keshishian first met Selena Gomez, her management had asked him to direct the pop star’s 2015 “Hands to Myself” video, as she was a huge fan of his work on the 1991 Madonna documentary Truth or Dare.
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Over the years, the two remained close, and even tried to film a documentary of Gomez’s 2016 Revival Tour — but the timing wasn’t right. “She was going through a lot of stuff, and it didn’t feel proper for me to have cameras constantly in her face,” Keshishian tells Billboard, adding that the two later met up in 2019 to film Gomez’s philanthropic trip to Kenya.
“I said, ‘Let me shoot a few days before we go to Kenya to see where you’re at now,’” the filmmaker recalls. “On that first day of filming, I realized that there was a bigger story, and I suggested that we just keep shooting more in LA before we went to Kenya. There was a story here about a girl just coming out of a mental health facility, recovering, but also keen to help others. There was an interesting tension there, between being a patient still in your own recovery, but wanting to also step up and try to bring healing to other people.”
Thus, the new Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me was born, documenting the star’s yearslong journey through the heights of fame and the lows of a very personal crisis and back again. It’s perhaps the most vulnerable fans have ever seen Gomez, and creating a safe space for the 30-year-old to be herself was of the utmost importance to Keshishian.
“I’m a really empathetic person and I really become invested in my subject,” he explains. “I’m living their life with them, in a sense, and I do tend to become very close to my subject matter. [Selena] really became like a sister to me, and someone I felt protective over.”
Keshishian noted that he was “delicate” in his filming style, making sure Gomez was completely comfortable along the way. Notably, in one poignant scene in the film, the Only Murders in the Building star is visibly suffering from lupus. “I was like, ‘Are you sure I can film this?’ And she was like, ‘Yes, you can film it,’” he says. “By that point, we were so aligned in what we were trying to do that I think she felt invested in sharing those really unguarded moments. If she doesn’t feel that [empathy] from me, she’s not going to be OK with being filmed.”
And while, at this point, Keshishian has known Gomez for nearly seven years, there were still things that surprised him about the star while filming. “I just learned that this is a really special soul,” he explains. “I do think she’s on Earth to help others. When I first started working with her, I was like, ‘She’s a young pop star,’” he recalled with a shrug. “But during the course of the six, seven years now that I’ve worked with her, I realized she’s much, much more than a pop star. This girl is a humanitarian in the deepest definition of the word, and I think that will be her legacy.”
His affection for and connection to Gomez is exactly why he wanted to create something special with My Mind & Me — not only for her fans, but also for anyone going through mental health troubles. “I tried to tell this story that is very specific, but there’s also kind of a larger, almost mythological [story] in terms of the hero’s journey,” he says. “You get that sense that she’s just this young girl from Texas from the poor side of the tracks who is, on one level, on this meteoric rise to stardom, but on an internal personal level, faces some deeper existential quandaries in her life like, ‘What is this for? What am I doing?’”
He continues, “On that level, I think it’s universal and, hopefully, it’s also inspiring to remember that you can be broken and still change the world. We all have our darkest moments, but it’s a question of what we do with them. I suffer from depression and anxiety as well, so I think that that connection was big for me and Selena.”
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me is out on Apple TV+ starting Friday (Nov. 4).
