A 16-year-old contestant delivered one of the most emotional auditions of the season so far on American Idol.

During the Feb. 2 episode of the show’s 2026 auditions, Ruby Rae earned a golden ticket to Hollywood Week after a stripped-back performance of Olivia Rodrigo’s hit “Vampire“, channeling personal grief into the song’s aching lyrics.

Before performing, Ruby Rae explained to the judges that she had been directly affected by the Palisades Fire, sharing that the experience had left her struggling to process loss and displacement. “It’s been really hard to find a way to talk about it,” she said. “Music is the only place where I feel like I can let it out.”

Accompanied by piano, the teenager delivered a restrained, emotionally raw rendition that visibly moved judges Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan, and Carrie Underwood. “I am so happy for us. I’m so happy for you,” Richie remarked. “Wow. That was right on the money.”

Bryan agreed, stating, “If there were a thousand things on a list, I think you checked them all. I don’t think we’ve seen a star, star, star like you yet.”

One judge described the audition as “brave” and “heartbreaking,” noting that Ruby Rae never over-sang the moment. Another pointed to her ability to convey lived experience at such a young age, calling it “the mark of a real artist.”

After a brief deliberation, the judges unanimously sent Ruby Rae through to Hollywood Week, awarding her a golden ticket as the audience applauded. The audition quickly became one of the episode’s most talked-about moments on social media, with viewers praising the singer’s vulnerability and storytelling rather than vocal theatrics.

Ruby Rae joins a growing group of young contestants advancing to the next round of American Idol’s 2026 season, which continues airing weekly as auditions roll on across the country.

While Bad Bunny used one of his Grammy acceptance speeches on Sunday night to condemn escalated operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t seem to be expecting to hear the same message this Super Bowl Sunday.

During a pre-Super Bowl press conference on Monday (Feb. 2), Goodell was asked a two-part question: whether he expected ICE agents to be present at Super Bowl events around San Francisco or at Levi’s Stadium during Sunday’s game and whether he thought Bad Bunny would repeat the same anti-ICE sentiment of his Grammy speech during the halftime show.

After saying he expects the same high security standard at and around the game as any other year, Goodell conveyed to reporters that the Super Bowl is not a time for divisive political statements — and said he believed Bad Bunny “understood” that assignment.

“Bad Bunny – I think it was demonstrated last night – is one of the greatest artists in the world,” Goodell said of Bunny, who picked up three new Grammy Awards on Sunday night, including album of the year for Debí Tirar Más Fotos. “That’s one of the reasons we chose him. But the other reason is that he understood the platform he was on. This platform is used to unite people, to be able to bring people together with their creativity and their talents and to be able to use this moment to do that. And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”

When Bunny made his first speech at Sunday’s Grammys telecast, accepting best música urbana album for DTMF, he started by referencing the “ICE Out” message worn by dozens of musicians on small black-and-white buttons that night.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ICE Out!” he declared as the room gave him a standing ovation. “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we are not aliens; we are humans and we are Americans. I know it’s tough not to hate on these days. … The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people, we love our family, and that’s the way to do it. We love. That’s the way to do it. Thank God, and thanks to the academy.”

Watch Goodell’s full answer below:

Kelly Clarkson and NBCUniversal announced Monday (Feb. 2) that The Kelly Clarkson Show will end after its current season. Production on season 7 will continue as planned, with episodes airing through the fall.

In a statement, Clarkson said she made the decision to step away from the show to “prioritize my kids, which feels necessary and right for this next chapter of our lives.” She has two children, daughter River, 11, and son Remington, 9, with former husband (and former manager) Brandon Blackstock, who died of melanoma six months ago at age 48.

“I have been extremely fortunate to work with such an outstanding group of people at TKCS, both in Los Angeles and New York,” Clarkson said in a statement on Instagram. “There have been so many amazing moments and shows over these seven seasons. I am forever grateful and honored to have worked alongside the greatest band and crew you could hope for, all the talent and inspiring people who have shared their time and lives with us, all the fans who have supported our show and to NBC for always being such a supportive and incredible partner.

“Because of all of that, this was not an easy decision, but this season will be my last hosting TKCS. Stepping away from the daily schedule will allow me to prioritize my kids, which feels necessary and right for this next chapter of our lives. This isn’t goodbye. I’ll still be making music, playing shows here and there and you may catch me on The Voice from time to time … you never know where I might show up next. But for now, I want to thank y’all so much for allowing our show to be a part of your lives, and for believing in us and hanging with us for seven incredible years.”

The Kelly Clarkson Show premiered in 2019 and has won 24 Daytime Emmy Awards, including four for best daytime talk series and four for Clarkson as best talk show host. As a producer of the show, Clarkson won the series awards as well as the host awards.

Clarkson won in at least one of those categories at the Daytime Emmys in each of the show’s first five seasons – and she won in both categories three times. This past season was the first in which Clarkson didn’t win in either category.

In accepting the Daytime Emmy for outstanding daytime talk series in 2024, Clarkson spoke in unusually personal terms in thanking NBC for listening to her concerns when she proposed moving the show from Los Angeles to New York.

“Thanks to NBC for believing in our show. …The fact that NBC, a huge company, took time and listened when I said ‘Hey, my life is not going super great. I don’t know if I can live here [in L.A.] anymore. I don’t know if I can do this.’ And they really wrapped their arms around us and they helped us move. And the move has been so great for not just me and my family but our whole show. It takes a lot of time and money and effort to do that. It is not unnoticed. I just want to say thank you for thinking of mental health as well as, you know, a product.”

The day before her ex-husband’s death in August 2025, Clarkson postponed her Las Vegas residency dates. “While I normally keep my personal life private, this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them,” the singer told fans at the time.

Clarkson of course first became known on television – as the first winner of American Idol in 2002. She is to this day one of the most famous and successful alumni from the show.

Clarkson has had three No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – her Idol coronation song “A Moment Like This” (2002), “My Life Would Suck Without You” (2009) and “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” (2011). She has also had three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 – Thankful (2003), All I Ever Wanted (2009) and Piece by Piece (2015).

Clarkson has won three Grammy Awards, including two for best pop vocal album. She is, to this day, one of only four artists to win twice in that category, along with Adele, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga (who just won her second award in that category on Sunday).

Clarkson’s show averages about 1.2 million same-day viewers in syndication, typically ranking third among syndicated daytime talk shows. The long-running “Kellyoke” segment, the show’s signature feature, has given many fans a heightened appreciation for Clarkson’s skills as a singer. The segment has also earned respect for the broad range of music that she selects. She doesn’t pander to the audience in just covering pop hits that her audience is most apt to know.

Clarkson will continue hosting the remainder of the 2025-26 season, with some guest hosts mixed in as well.

Universal Television produces The Kelly Clarkson Show. The show is distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios. Alex Duda is the executive producer and showrunner.

Pandora has settled with comedians in a closely-watched legal dispute over spoken-word content licensing, though the streamer says it still isn’t paying the equivalent of publishing royalties sought in the comics’ lawsuit.

Nine comedians and their heirs, including George Lopez, Lewis Black and the estates of deceased legends Robin Williams and George Carlin, have been fighting since 2022 to increase the royalties paid when their comedy sets are streamed on Pandora. Lawyers for the comics and Pandora agreed on a confidential settlement during a court-refereed mediation on Wednesday (Jan. 28), court records show.

The comedians’ lawsuit had aimed to align their royalties structure with that of music streaming, where artists are paid for both sound recordings (masters) and the underlying written music (publishing). Comics have historically been paid digital streaming royalties only for their recorded comedy routines, not the underlying jokes themselves.

The comedians did not ultimately achieve this goal, according to a spokesperson for Pandora’s parent company SiriusXM, who said in a statement to Billboard on Monday (Feb. 2) that the settlement does not grant the comics either past royalties or forward-looking licenses for spoken-word rights.

“We at SiriusXM and Pandora are pleased to have resolved this matter amicably, with an outcome that affirms the legality of our long-standing approach to licensing spoken-word comedy recordings,” said the spokesperson. “We look forward to continuing our mutually beneficial relationship with comedians, using the same licensing practices that have long been standard across streaming services, broadcasters and other platforms that help comedians and spoken-word artists share and promote their work.”

Reached for comment on Monday, the comedians’ lawyer, Richard Busch, said only, “We settled amicably.”

The settlement follows a court report that, while not final, had prognosticated an outcome in favor of Pandora. Former federal magistrate judge Suzanne H. Segal, who was appointed as a so-called special master to weigh in on the case, advised this summer that the comedians gave Pandora an “implied license” to their written work by allowing the company to stream comedy shows for years without protest.

The lawsuit’s presiding judge, Mark C. Scarsi, was in the process of reviewing this report and had asked for more information before making his own binding judgment. However, the judge suggested this past September that a settlement might be more prudent.

“The court anticipates that further proceedings before the special master will require further significant expenditures by the parties and the special master (whose fees are borne by the parties) given the anticipated scope of the court’s instructions for further development,” wrote Judge Scarsi. “On that basis, following the policy of this district to encourage disposition of civil litigation by settlement when such is in the best interest of the parties, the court orders the parties to engage in a settlement conference.”

Chappell Roan is having a good laugh after her barely-there 2026 Grammys red-carpet outfit made headlines around the world on Sunday night.

The controversial look — a custom maroon Mugler gown based on the designer’s 1998 nipple-ring dress — started out covered in a sheer cape before Roan shed the layer and unveiled the topless style.

“Giggling because I don’t even think this is THAT outrageous of an outfit,” Roan captioned a carousel of photos posted to her Instagram on Monday (Feb. 2). “The look’s actually so awesome and weird. I recommend just exercising your free will it’s really fun and silly 😀 Thank you for having me @grammys and those who voted for me!!”

Billboard‘s video of Roan on the red carpet from Sunday night is at a whopping 52 million views (and counting) on Instagram, with comments ranging from “I love her but this is too much. Is she gonna get banned?” to “Okay but she really ate this look up.”

Roan was back at the Grammy Awards this year as a presenter and nominee after her breakthrough year at the show last year, when she won best new artist. Her 2025 single “The Subway” was nominated for best pop solo performance and record of the year at the 2026 ceremony, but she lost to Lola Young’s “Messy” and Kendrick Lamar’s “luther” with SZA, respectively.

When she hit the stage to present this year’s best new artist prize to Olivia Dean, Roan opted for an outfit change, switching into a one-strap tan chiffon gown.

See Chappell’s Instagram post here.