‘Emotional’ Kelly Clarkson Returns To Talk Show After Ex Brandon Blackstock’s Death

The Kelly Clarkson Show is back!

On Monday, season 7 of Kelly Clarkson‘s talk show premiered — and the singer was there to resume her hosting duties. For the first episode back, Kelly performed a cover of The Weeknd‘s Blinding Lights for her “Kellyoke” segment. This season is all about “light,” so the song choice was fitting. She also interviewed A Big Bold Beautiful Journey co-stars Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell.

While she made no mention of the loss of her ex-husband and father of her children, Brandon Blackstock, the show did venture into some very heavy subject matter. At one point, Kelly took a moment to honor those who were on the scene during the devastating floods in Texas Hill Country over the summer, specifically tearing up while hearing from Kerrville ISD bus drivers, who risked their lives saving hundreds of kids from deadly floodwaters.

Related: Kelly Felt Guilty About THIS Amid Ex Brandon’s Cancer Battle

Speaking to USA Today, music director Jason Halbert praised the American Idol winner for returning to the show, no matter how “emotional” it was:

“I don’t know how [Clarkson] compartmentalizes watching that segment, super emotional, and then jumping into, like, making crafts with kids, and then jumping into emoting a song.”

Jason also suggested Kelly will be pouring her heart out about the challenges she’s faced in her life over the last few months on the show — but in song rather than in conversation:

“A lot happened for us all in the last year, on personal and career levels. You’re going to see some songs reflect things that maybe she wouldn’t talk about verbally in a sitting on the couch interview.”

Oof. Sounds like we could be getting some tear-jerker performances. Showrunner Alex Duda added that this season is all about “light” and finding the light in dark times, something that’s been at the heart of the show from the start but that they wanted to “reaffirm” in the premiere.

The show began production starting in the week of September 8, after the previous finale in June. Last season, Kelly was often MIA for unexplained reasons as she dealt with a personal matter. She then had to cancel some Las Vegas residency performances right before it was announced that her ex had passed away after secretly battling cancer.

Brandon died on August 7 at age 48. Throughout this health battle and difficult loss, the 43-year-old has been prioritizing the needs of her children, River, 11, and Remington, 9. Hopefully, returning to some level of normalcy will help amid this ongoing grieving process. We’re sending Kelly and her family lots of love!

See a clip from the first episode back:

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