Earlier this week, Kelly Clarkson announced that season seven will be the last for her award-winning talk show. The Kelly Clarkson Show will end in November 2026. In her official statement, Kelly claimed that she made the difficult decision because she wanted to prioritize her children, River, 11, and Remy, nine. Their father, Kelly’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, passed away from cancer in August.
That explanation makes sense given the circumstances, but I still saw some chatter online from fans who wondered if there was another, more business-related reason behind the surprise announcement. On that note, People got an exclusive statement explaining more of Kelly’s rationale for ending the show. According to their source, Kelly wants to move away from the grind so she can take life at a slower pace.
Kelly Clarkson is preparing for her next chapter after deciding to step away from her daytime talk show.
“After years of an intense daily schedule, she’s excited to move at a different pace and have more flexibility to spend time with her kids without the structure of a daily show,” a source exclusively tells PEOPLE.
“This change gives her the space to be more present at home while still doing the creative work she loves,” the source continues. “Kelly still wants to make music and perform, and she’s open to popping up on projects she enjoys, but nothing that requires an ongoing daily grind. For her, this next phase is about balance.”
The Grammy winner, 43, announced on Monday, Feb. 2, that the current season of The Kelly Clarkson Show will be its last, bringing the NBC series to an end after seven seasons.
While this is a perfectly reasonable explanation, it’s worth noting that Kelly’s show wasn’t the only daytime talk show to announce that it’s going off the air this week. On Monday, just hours after Kelly’s Instagram post went up, word got out that Sherri Shepherd’s talk show, Sherri was canceled after four seasons. It will also air new episodes until this fall. The reason given by its production company was the ”evolving daytime television landscape”. There are also unconfirmed rumors that The Jennifer Hudson Show may be in trouble, too.
I think that for Kelly, the decision probably came down to wanting more flexibility to pursue other career options, wanting to be there to support her children who just lost their dad, and the industry no longer supporting so many talk shows. Both daytime and late-night talk shows are struggling with ratings and profitability simply because viewers’ TV-watching habits have changed with the rise of podcasts and YouTube, both of which are not bound by network restrictions. It makes sense that she’d want to go out on her own terms.
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I wish her nothing but the best! I imagine a daily talk show would be incredibly challenging, regardless of life circumstances. With both her and her two young children going through so much loss and change in such a short amount of time – I think it makes perfect sense that her priorities have changed.
I doubt it was a business decision by Kelly or NBC. Between the show, The Voice, and music, something had to give. Especially now that she’s a single parent not co-parenting. A talk takes up so much time and energy.