Kelly Clarkson's MD Details Puzzling Together the Pieces of Each Iconic Kellyoke (Exclusive) Sammi BurkeSeptember 30, 2025 at 4:09 AM 0 Photo by: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Kelly Clarkson is back, ya'll.
- - Kelly Clarkson's MD Details Puzzling Together the Pieces of Each Iconic Kellyoke (Exclusive)
Sammi BurkeSeptember 30, 2025 at 4:09 AM
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Photo by: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Kelly Clarkson is back, ya'll.
The beloved talk show host kicked off her seventh season with an incredibly meta performance of The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights," emphasizing the intention of the latest season—and the series—with the song choice. Not to mention, as always, blowing her fans away with her take on another beloved artist's song.
"I love that song, it makes me feel good, and it's a perfect song to kick us off," she said exuberantly, calling "light...a constant theme for us on this show since the beginning."
"I've always said that my favorite part of doing this job—and I stand by it—is finding the light and shining it on people who are really trying to make a difference. That's exactly what we're going to be doing this week and all season, ya'll," she added.
Parade had the opportunity to speak with showrunner Alex Duda following the episode's filming. Asked to describe the season in three words or less, she reiterates, "Find the light."
"It's find the light. That's what we've been doing since season one," she emphasizes. "And Kelly did say—and this is what she's always said since season one—the one thing we keep coming back to, that brings us joy and gets us through, is when we can shine a light on people just making change in their communities. Just making a little change that ends up having big, like, repercussions." That was further highlighted in the episode when Clarkson hosted a dozen bus drivers from the Kerrville, Texas area, to shine a light on their heroic treks to rescue nearly 1,000 stranded campers during this summer's catastrophic flooding.
Parade also chatted with music director Jason Halbert, who Duda points out is "always listening" for new ideas—and the fact that Clarkson "won't just stay in one genre" and "sings everything" makes it a fun exercise.
The man himself compares the arrangements he creates for the American Idol winner and her band Ya'll to "the puzzles of how to piece things together." Thus far, he's put together over 1000 songs for her to perform on her eponymous talk show, and there are "a lot of thoughts put into how [they] piece together" the Kellyoke calendar. For example, not scheduling too many slow songs in a row and keeping a cool mix of current and throwback tracks.
The fact that the show doesn't always air in the order the episodes are filmed makes it even more complicated, but he's always up for a challenge—and when things don't turn out quite as expected, he credits Clarkson for being "real quick to not throw it away."
"On the fly, we'll have this whole thing, and she's like, 'You know what? Let's just make that piano only.' So we're really good at adapting things," he explains.
Parade witnessed the phenomenon firsthand during a rare Kellyoke filming in front of a studio audience, as Clarkson worked out the timing of the track on the fly, making minor adjustments over a series of three recordings. It's a common—and majorly impressive—occurrence, as Halbert points out, "because, you know, her day starts with a briefing. She's worried about guests and her research and stuff. She shuts off this part of the job and then comes over here, and so she's trying to figure out what's working best for her voice in that moment."
Related: Kelly Clarkson and Lizzo Are 'Serving All the Vocals' in Iconic 'Good As Hell' Duet
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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