Kelly Clarkson: ‘I did not want this job’ as a talk show host

Embed from Getty Images
I actively avoid watching Kelly Clarkson’s interviews, even though I sometimes need to for my job. She talks over her guests often and she hasn’t improved her skills during lockdown. It’s very frustrating to watch her because she manages to make interviews all about herself. Somehow she got another season though, and I guess people like her style and personality. Kelly has a profile in the LA Times in which they emphasize how likable she is and how she’s the real deal, especially compared to Ellen, whom Kelly talks about somewhat without directly condemning. It’s telling to me that Kelly said she didn’t want a job as a talk show host. Someone knew she would be a hit with her demographic, she ended up doing it and that seems to be panning out for her. Kelly also hints at some depression and tough times and it’s clear she’s been going through some things during her divorce. Kelly is promoting her show and she’s also returning to The Voice.

On her job as a talk show host
“I will be completely honest, and I have been since the beginning: I did not want this job. I say that it’s the dream I didn’t know I had because I talk to so many people, and not just celebrities. I’ve talked to the people that have been hit hardest in all of this — financially, emotionally, mentally … it’s really the everyday people on this show that have just lifted my spirits when I’ve been feeling like, ‘Oh my God, nothing else could possibly go wrong at this point, like, send in the locusts.’”

She talks around the Ellen issue and about leadership in general
“How you act is how all those beneath you are going to feel like they’re allowed to act.

“Accountability is so important. Everybody messes up. Everybody’s allowed to mess up. We are imperfect; that’s OK. But it’s not OK to pretend it’s not happening. … I’m the first one in the room to go, ‘Was that me? Did I do it?’ Or, ‘How can I fix it?’”

She calls being in Montana during the pandemic a “turd of a situation”
“That was not fun. I’m trying to smile and light up America’s life [and] I’m just wanting to drown myself in the creek next to me … I do remember, right before then, I was like: ‘Look, at some point, people in the limelight are humans too and we’re all going through the same roller coaster as everyone else. So sometimes I don’t want to smile.’ I was honest about that. It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s all relative to your own world.”

On being guarded about her divorce
“I am a very open person, but I’m not going to be able to be truly open about this in certain aspects because there’s kids involved. I think that I will navigate a way in which to be open and honest about it eventually, probably via the show, and it’ll probably, I’m assuming, happen organically when someone says something in conversation or something. It definitely wouldn’t be planned. But my children and his older children — there are a lot of little hearts involved in this and while people feel, ‘Oh my gosh, what a loss …’ imagine how it is in the epicenter of the storm. It’s a lot to process and deal with, just as a family. So because it’s not just me, I probably won’t go too deep with it.”

[From The LA Times]

At first I had a knee jerk response to how she said she wanted to “drown herself in the creek.” It sounds like she’s being hyperbolic about depression, but I think she’s trying to be humorous about something that’s deeply bothering her. Later in the interview she hinted that she’s been through some dark things in her divorce and that she’s working through it with her therapist. She called her music her outlet and said she has trouble expressing her feelings in general, and that’s always been true. She’s so talented at writing songs, coaching singers and performing, why is she being pushed as something she’s not that she didn’t even want?

On a different note, Kelly has a collection with Wayfair and the QAnon idiots are coming for her on Instagram. I can’t.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

15 Responses to “Kelly Clarkson: ‘I did not want this job’ as a talk show host”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Mumzy says:

    Her comment about how you treat the “people beneath you” tells me all I need to know. The only way it’s okay for someone to think (and thus say) that someone is beneath them is if a body is *literally* beneath theirs.

    • Noki says:

      i think in this case she just means organisational chart or work hierachy.

    • Mouki's wife says:

      I’m fairly sure she means in the corporate structure.

    • Jen says:

      Way to twist that to make up something false. She’s a choir/church kid and it absolutely should not be taken that way

      From 2 decades ago Kelly has been known for treating everyone from a back up singer to a driver to waitress (which she was for years) as equals even before her talk show.

      PS, during the first few shows she did interject too much but she’s got the hang of it now and gives the “star” the time. It’s actually more pleasing of an interview style than how usual anchors or even Ellen does and more conversational. Not Q& A style. Kelly is the real deal. NBC very lucky to have her.

  2. Noki says:

    Interviewing is such a hard job,and I find it the more bubbly and out going the interviewer the worse they are. Barbara W. and Diane S. made great interviewers cause they actually listened and had good timing. I always thought Oprah was another one who always managed to turn everything into some scenario about her.

    • BnLurkN4eva says:

      Oprah started out great, I think, but later on she became such a star and then everything was about her. I love Oprah, no one will ever be as good in my eyes in that format, but I think she became too much the star for her platform and I also think she had the self awareness to know when to end it. She’s much better in the limited sessions she does now, more like she used to be.

  3. SamC says:

    I appreciated that she referenced her step kids as going through the emotional break too.

  4. FHMom says:

    She sounds like she isn’t in a good place. I’m sure she’ll be talking back this interview soon. I adore Kelly, but she tends to put her foot in her mouth when she speaks.

    • Sojaschnitzel says:

      Tell me one person who’s in a good place right now? Noone. Not one person. And we shouldn’t be. Not in a world in which you wake up to the news of forced mass hysterectomies on immigrant women, which is news that I really want to be fake, for my own mental health, but I guess these are the times we live in now.

  5. Jess says:

    That dress is doing her NO favours.

  6. mara says:

    I get the impression that Kelly is a nervous talker, and that it sometimes causes her to ramble and talk over people. Perhaps a talk show isn’t a good fit for her. I can’t help but feel sad for her because divorce is stressful, even more so when children are involved.

  7. Emily says:

    FYI true measure of a person
    Her still thanking her husband for winning Emmy because as she previously said he pushed her to do the show and she ended up liking it. Even though rumors are he allegedly hurt her, she refuses to talk shit knowing 4 kids will be reading it all.