Brad Paisley and Luke Bryan teamed up to tease Carrie Underwood and Lionel Richie on the season premiere of American Idol.
The country stars conspired against Bryan’s fellow Idol judges when he slipped away for a supposed bathroom break. Instead of visiting the little boys room, though, Bryan met up with Paisley and Idol host Ryan Seacrest, both of whom were in on the devious plan.
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The guys decided to stage a fake Idol audition, during which Paisley would feed Bryan increasingly crazy things to say.
Paisley prompted Bryan to ask Underwood about his bench pressing capabilities, before instructing the country judge to express disdain for the fake auditioner’s home state of Michigan.
“What is happening? Did you go take shots on your bathroom break?” Underwood questioned Bryan after his first couple odd comments.
Bryan and Paisley were undeterred, with the latter singer telling the former one to cut off the fake auditioner’s song after the first note.
“Will you let the poor boy sing?” Underwood exclaimed.
Carrie Underwood Can’t Catch a Break With Her Jokester Co-Judges on ‘Idol’
Bryan did not acquiesce, instead yelling about the fake contestant’s song and circling back to his own bench pressing abilities. Eventually, Bryan decided to drop his safe word—hot chicken—prompting Paisley and Seacrest to come in and unveil the joke.
After Paisley and Seacrest made their way into the audition room, Richie seemed relieved by the development.“I thought he had fallen,” Richie said after Bryan’s odd behavior.
Underwood had a different view point, laughing as she admitted, “You wanna hear something great? I didn’t think anything was wrong.”
All the Idol team were delighted by the prank, and Bryan’s safe word permeated through the rest of the auditions.
Any time the judges were sure a contestant had the promise required for the competition they eagerly exclaimed “hot chicken,” creating a hilarious inside joke for the season ahead.
American Idol airs Mondays on ABC.
Photo by Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images
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