Kelly Clarkson is reflecting on the unexpected turns that shaped her seven-year run as host of The Kelly Clarkson Show as the NBC daytime series prepares to sign off for good.
“You know what? [In our] seven seasons, a lot has happened in my personal life and a lot has happened in life for everyone,” Clarkson, 44, said in a YouTube video released Friday, August 28. “There’s been a pandemic. I think, if there’s a word to describe The Kelly Clarkson Show, it’s ‘pivot.’ There’s not been one normal season, I feel like, but at the same time; what a necessary thing to have to come to work and focus on other people.”
The singer said the show became more than a professional home during difficult chapters. “I think that saved me, honestly, a lot of times [and] I think this show has made everyone better at what they do,” she added.
Clarkson launched her self-titled NBC daytime talk show in 2019, just a year before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the entertainment industry — and her production — to adapt to remote formats. The original American Idol winner later relocated the show to New York City in 2023 after her difficult divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. Blackstock died in 2025 at age 48 following a private battle with cancer.
For Clarkson, ending the series was less about stepping away from work than making room for her priorities. After months of speculation, she announced on February 2 that she would leave her daytime talk show after its seventh season. “This was not an easy decision,” she wrote in an emotional Instagram post at the time, acknowledging the weight of closing such a meaningful chapter.
Clarkson announced in February that she decided to wrap her show to prioritize her family, including kids River Rose, 12, and Remington, 10, she shared with Blackstock.
Ahead of the Monday, August 31, finale, Clarkson recalled her tenure as a talk show host.
“Well, it was brought up to me with my ex and he was like, ‘Hey, NBC was talking about maybe doing a talk show with me,’ and I was, like, ‘OK, that’s the worst idea ever ‘cause I never shut up,’” Clarkson recalled of Blackstock’s pitch for the then-new show’s concept. “You know, nobody really knew my personality to the extent of what it is until The Voice, and I think they saw how comfortable on-camera I am and how, like, I’m all in.”
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Kelly Clarkson with her two kids during the final episode of ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show.’ Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal
She added, “I’m very present. I think they saw that and it’s really just me. I’m the same kid at 19 that auditioned for Idol that everybody got to know in the first place. Working with those producers on that show and having to do the little segments here and there and that probably prepped me a little, and I didn’t realize it.”
Once Clarkson filmed the talk show’s pilot episode, she admitted her “ignorance [was] kind of bliss” before producers found the series “really worked” with test audiences.
Kelly Clarkson got real about how her personal struggles influenced her move to New York City ahead of season 5 of her talk show. “I’ll be real honest: I thought I was making a horrible decision,” Clarkson, 41, told USA Today in an interview published on Monday, October 16, of her choice to relocate The […]
“Sometimes, a lot of times, I’m just sitting across from people going, ‘How did I get the chance to talk to you?’” she quipped of her onscreen celebrity interviews. “All these incredible people that I’ve really looked up to. You know, Julie Andrews, I’ve talked to her a couple times. Who says that? We’ve literally had people that are in the White House. I mean, it’s been everyone from Heart to Alanis [Morissette] to, I mean, I’ve had Pink on here. I’ve been singing with people that I’m just, like, ‘What?’”
Receiving a yearbook of her The Kelly Clarkson Show memories on Friday, the singer mused how much has changed in the seven years since the show’s inception.
“See, I forget some of these things. And honestly, for me, my kids have grown up on this show, too,” she said. “Like, it’s been seven years, and these are the growing years for them right now. It’s been crazy.”