Underwood and fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan made some tough cuts on Monday’s episode.

Carrie Underwood booed while judging American Idol: ‘I love it! Your boos are feeding me!’

Underwood and fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan made some tough cuts on Monday's episode.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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on March 3, 2026 6:18 p.m. ET

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Carrie Underwood on 'American Idol'. Credit:

Eric McCandless/Disney

*American Idol* judge Carrie Underwood obviously knows a lot about how to keep an audience happy, but she doesn't always do it.

The "Cowboy Casanova" singer famously won the show in 2005, and she's returned many times as a performer and, last season, as a judge. She now sits alongside Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.

On Monday's episode, she had some tough words for contestant Mor, a 22-year-old from Teays Valley, W.Va., following his performance of an original song, "How to Love You."

Even while the judges were clapping after the song ended, Underwood told Bryan that she expected to be booed. And she was correct!

"I feel like you guys are gonna boo me," Underwood told the audience. "And it's coming, just bring it on! I love it! Your boos are feeding me!"

After her prediction, she gave the comments she thought would go unappreciated by spectators.

"In a room like this, for you to bring an original song, with that incredible band sitting behind you, like twiddling their thumbs, I feel like it was just a missed opportunity," she said, to ... boos.

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She concluded with a note of optimism, "And I love your voice. I love you! But I loved being in an intimate room with you like that and listening to your story. I feel like you took a risk here, and … it paid off."

She turned out to have been complimenting the contestant, who didn't make it past the show's annual Hollywood Week, which was actually held at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., this year.

Underwood commented on the moment when it aired, posting on social media, "Boo me. I don't care," alongside laughing emojis.

Underwood has said that she doesn't simply want to tell everyone their performance was perfect.

"I just want everybody to learn and that's part of it," she told SiriusXM's The Highway in September. And nobody wants to just hear that they're amazing all the time."

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Mor was, unfortunately, one of the many cut from the competition. The judges trimmed the pool of 127 aspiring Idols to just 30.

The remaining artists will next participate in this season's new 'Ohana Round at ABC parent company Disney's Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii, where they will need to impress not just Underwood and the other judges, but industry experts, the other contestants, and their families, to stay in the competition.

*American Idol* airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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Source: “EW Reality”