The Kelly Clarkson Show aired its 1,000th episode on Thursday, and the people in charge of the show find it amusing that people freaked out about Kelly’s recent absences.
Kelly was absent from the show from March 3 to March 13, with guest hosts taking her place. Deadline reports that Kelly was out due to a “private matter.” The mag noted that “multiple press outlets went wild” over the absences, while fans were “desperate for answers.”
“It’s so funny because every season there’s been a period where we had to go to guest hosts for one reason or another,” executive producer and showrunner Alex Duda tells Deadline. “But for some reason this year they wrote about it.”
“We’ve done this before,” adds Tracie Wilson, the executive VP for NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and E! News. “I can’t even tell you how many texts I got from family and friends too.”
“Yes, we’ve had guest hosts a lot over the years, so it’s just something about this year. … [P]eople love their Kelly and they want her on the air, so we appreciate that.”
As for why the show has been such a success that it’s managed to last 1,000 episodes, Wilson says, “One of the most appealing things about Kelly is that she talks to the human interest regular folks in the same way she talks to the celebrities. She’s just so comfortable in her skin and she doesn’t know how to be any other way.”
“For anyone who comes on, it’s just a really comfortable experience and that’s why people keep coming back.”
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