Carrie Underwood<\/a>. <\/p>\nHe revealed the news by making a virtual appearance at Luke\u2019s concert in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday (24.09.26), as he said: \u201cSome of my greatest friendships have started right here in Nashville, Tennessee. That includes you, Carrie and Luke. Do you wanna share our secret?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Luke, on stage with Carrie, then chimed in as he yelled excitedly: \u201cWe\u2019re coming back for the 25th season of\u00a0American Idol!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe news was confirmed by network ABC on Instagram, as they wrote: \u201cGuess who\u2019s back. Carrie, Luke, Lionel and Ryan are returning for the 25th season of #AmericanIdol!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nLionel and Luke have been judges on the programme since 2018, with Carrie joining the panel in 2025. <\/p>\n
\nThe new season of the show is set to return to screens in 2027, with Ryan Seacrest returning as host. <\/p>\n
\nNews of Lionel\u2019s Idol return comes after his rep confirmed he\u2019d undergone a “common procedure” for atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, and said he’s now taking some time off before he resumes performing. <\/p>\n
\nThe spokesperson told People: “Lionel underwent a common procedure for atrial fibrillation. The doctor said everything went perfectly. <\/p>\n
\n“Lionel is doing great but will take some time off and will be back on stage soon.” <\/p>\n
\nLionel was due to perform at concerts in San Francisco, Chicago and Columbus in the next two weeks, but those shows have now been cancelled as Lionel focuses on his recovery. <\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile, Lionel checked himself into a medical facility in late August, after he started feeling unwell during a concert in St. Louis, Missouri. <\/p>\n
\nThe singer’s children, daughters Nicole and Sofia and son Miles, were reported to have been extremely worried about their dad and were encouraging him to slow down at the time. <\/p>\n
\nA source told the Daily Mail newspaper: “His daughters, especially, really want him to slow down because he means so much to them, he has always been there for them, he has been like a Super Dad … <\/p>\n
\n“They have worried that Lionel was working too hard with this new tour on the heels of eight seasons of American Idol, which is a super demanding job.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"25 September 2026 Lionel Richie is returning to his role as a judge on American Idol after recently undergoing a heart procedure. Lionel Richie returning as American Idol judge after heart op The 77-year-old musician\u2019s involvement in season 25 of the TV competition had been called into doubt following a representative for the singer confirming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[89,838,118,788],"class_list":{"0":"post-265313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-carrie-underwood","9":"tag-lionel-richie","10":"tag-luke-bryan","11":"tag-ryan-seacrest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}