Is Carrie Underwood Replacing Katy Perry On ‘American Idol’?

Update: On Thursday morning, August 1, American Idol officially announced Carrie Underwood as a judge for Season 8 of ABC’s rebooted series. Underwood will replace Katy Perry and join returning judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.

Original Article: Carrie Underwood won American Idol in 2005 and proceeded to mount a multi-Grammy-winning country music career. Still, she’s perhaps most widely known for singing NBC’s Sunday Night Football theme song for the past decade.

Underwood might soon have a monopoly on Sunday night network television, as that’s also when American Idol airs.

Is Carrie Underwood Replacing Katy Perry On American Idol ?

In May, Katy Perry concluded her run as an American Idol judge after seven seasons. The same month, ABC renewed American Idol but did not announce Perry’s replacement.

On Wednesday, TMZ exclusively reported that Underwood is “very close to filling” Perry’s Idol seat.

“Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ Carrie and her team are in the final stages of locking her into a contract to appear on the hit ABC show, and if all goes smoothly, the former Idol winner will soon join Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie as the new judge,” the outlet relayed.

TMZ additionally speculated that Underwood could formally announce her new job while appearing on Good Morning America on Friday, August 2.

Deadline separately reported that Underwood “is expected to sit alongside Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan” for Season 25 after other names such as Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Pink, and Meghan Trainor “were in talks” before ABC landed on Underwood.

As of this writing, American Idol representatives and Underwood’s representatives declined to comment to Billboard .