'American Idol' premiere: Carrie Underwood cries, a Backstreet Boy duets with his son

USA Today

10-03-2025

'American Idol' premiere: Carrie Underwood cries, a Backstreet Boy duets with his son
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'American Idol': Carrie Underwood makes history, replaces Katy Perry
Carrie Underwood, the season 4 winner of "American Idol," is returning to the show. The Grammy winner will replace Katy Perry on the judges panel.
As a new season of "American Idol" kicks off, Season 23 so far is losing focus on the next Idol as it highlights one of its most famous alumni: Carrie Underwood.
Of course, Underwood is the long-running competition show's newest judge, coming home after cultivating a successful career over the past two decades to nurture the next generation of talent.
Following Katy Perry's departure last year, Season 4 winner and eight-time Grammy winner Underwood signed on to help Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie sift through the nation's undiscovered talents. And Sunday's season premiere went to great lengths to re-introduce Underwood — the show's first ever alum-turned-judge — to "Idol" loyalists.
As the trio went from audition to audition, Bryan and Richie realized something about their new colleague: She can sing almost anything. Thus, "Jukebox Carrie" was born as the country star belted along to auditions utilizing everyone from Korn to George Strait to Bell Biv DeVoe.
We've got a few of these auditions episodes to get through in the next few weeks, so let's get right to it.
Here are Episode 1's standout performances, who made it to Hollywood and which lucky lady is getting fast-tracked through Hollywood Week with a platinum ticket.
Listen up, millennials: This Backstreet Boy did a duet with his son
There was no getting the family resemblance past Underwood.
She'd clocked there was something familiar about Baylee Littrell, and she was right; the 21-year-old college student from Alpharetta, Georgia, is the son of Backstreet Boys star Brian Littrell. His career started early, when he was a kid opening for the boyband.
"I believe I get my voice from Dad, and hopefully I can do him justice today," Baylee said. "Following in my dad's footsteps is scary because his career to me is one of the most extraordinary in music history. No one can ever compare."
Brian clearly disagrees, proud dad that he is: "I've always told everybody that he's 10 times more talented than I ever was," he said. "He's obviously grown up in the business and I think he's cut out for it."
Bucking any expectations that he'd go the saccharine pop route, Baylee took a risk with an original song called "Waiting on Myself to Die." The judges were convinced enough by the acoustic guitar set and the vulnerability in a song about not letting yourself give up, but for good measure, they requested a father-son duet.
Brian joined for a reprisal of the song, providing the upper range for the chorus. And with three yeses delivered, Brian was left in tears.
This 17 year old deserves to go straight to the Top 10
Someone give this high schooler a record deal, stat.
Isaiah Misailegalu, a 17-year-old high school senior from Las Vegas, Nevada, is not only the varsity football team captain, a member of the honor choice and president of his school's Polynesian club, but he also has immense singing talent.
Forget the platinum ticket — where's the card that rockets him straight to the Top 10? With his confidence and emotion as he sang Donny Hathaway's "A Song For You" with accompaniment from his Uncle Luigi on acoustic guitar, the performance was one you'll want to put on a loop.
One issue: Underwood refused to believe that voice could come from someone who only recently started singing in front of others. "It sounds like you've been doing it forever. You made it sound very easy, and it's not. So well done, you liar," she joked.
"You just borrowed Donny's song, but that's your song now," Richie said before the judges gave thee easy yeses.
Carrie Underwood was 'not a crier' — until she met an adorable toddler
Usually, putting your audience to sleep isn't a good sign for a singer. But it might've just secured 25-year-old Breanna Nix a ticket to Hollywood.
As the stay-at-home mom from Denton, Texas, boldly sang Underwood's own song "Jesus, Take the Wheel," her toddler Emerson fought to keep his eyelids open in Underwood's arms until he finally gave in to slumber. The cuteness moved the "Idol" alum to tears.
As Underwood described what "an honor" it was to hear the cover, Bryan took over babysitting duties and let the little boy nap against his chest.
The trio's unanimous vote came in a whisper, so as to not wake the little one, and was a resounding "yes."
Who made it to Hollywood Week?
The judges were not too sparing with their golden tickets in the season premiere (I'm looking at you, Insite, and your head-banging to Korn). Here's who's making it through to Hollywood.
Kolbi Jordan
Breanna Dix
Crews Wright
Isaiah Misailegalu
Kam'ron Smith
Insite
Baylee Littrell
Lillie Zitlaly Rhoden
Shane Dan Turner
Pat Johnson
Ché
Gabby Simone
Ian Ward
Abi Bowen
Slater Nalley
Who got a platinum ticket?
Introduced in 2022 to shake things up after more than 20 years on air, the platinum ticket rockets a contestant through the first week of auditions in Hollywood. The judges typically have four of these updates to dole out.
Kolbi Jordan, the 26-year-old singer from Tulsa, got top billing as the first audition of the episode. Her rendition of Chrisette Michele's "Epiphany (I'm Leaving)" bowled over the judges so much that not only did Richie get her on the phone with her idol Patti LaBelle, the producers also set her up with a performance during a Titans vs Patriots game at Nashville's Nissan Stadium.
After she proved her chops to an estimated 70,000 football fans (one would assume; we didn't actually get to see the performance), Kolbi had her golden ticket upgraded to a platinum ticket. Cue the confetti.