Kelly Clarkson closed out “The Kelly Clarkson Show” on August 31, ending a seven-season run on NBCUniversal’s daytime lineup with an episode built around her children, her band and the Kellyoke covers that became the show’s signature. The singer opened the finale performing “Golden,” from the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack, and spent the hour moving between music and reflection rather than a standard guest lineup.
Clarkson announced the show’s end in February, telling “Today” that shifting family circumstances pushed her to step back from a five-day-a-week hosting schedule. Her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, died last year of cancer, and Clarkson said the loss reshaped how she thought about her time. “Our family life, the dynamic changed a bit, and it has changed for a minute now,” she said at the time, adding that she wanted to focus on raising her two children, River Rose, 11, and Remington, 10.
Those children anchored the finale. Clarkson recalled that River was still in kindergarten when the show launched and is now headed to middle school, while Remington made his singing debut on the program’s stage. She brought both kids out during the broadcast and asked what they remembered most fondly. Remington cited singing with the band and meeting Jason Momoa. River’s answer, that she liked watching her mother “shine every single day,” caught Clarkson off guard and pushed her to tears on camera. “You just opened me on my own show,” she told her daughter.
The episode also gave Clarkson a stage for a new song, “I’d Be Lying,” released in July but never performed live before the finale. Earlier in the broadcast, she revisited “Piece by Piece,” the ballad she wrote about her father’s absence and about learning what steady parenting looks like, a performance she has struggled to get through live in the past. Clarkson closed the show flanked by her children, telling viewers, “Before we turn the page, have a great day, and if it’s not, change it.”
