Tonight on ABC, it’s The Great Idol Reunion, as American Idol alumni gather to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Among the winners who’ll be performing: Ruben Studdard, Jordin Sparks, Scotty McCreery, Maddie Poppe, Kris Allen and David Cook. Season seven champ David says he agreed to participate because he’s got a “soft spot” for Idol — “for obvious reasons.”
“When they ask, I always try to make it work,” he tells ABC Audio. While he jokes that he’d say no if they asked him to dance, or do a group number, he explains, “This one was exciting: To get an opportunity to perform with somebody like Kris Allen, who I’ve become very friendly with over the years and have a great rapport with…it’s a pretty easy thing to say yes to.”
David also jokes that in the wake of the pandemic, he has “a bit of a newfound appreciation for human interaction,” so he enjoyed getting to see his old friends and meet new ones. Plus, viewers will see other familiar faces who haven’t been announced.
“There were actually other alumni there…that was also really cool…it wasn’t something we were told about ahead of time,” says David.
There were a couple of downsides, though: One, David says, was the “nausea-inducing” return to the Idol set. “How quickly you fall right back into the old anxiety!” he laughs. “To get to walk back into that room and have all those feelings kinda flood back in…It’s overwhelming,” he explains.
The other downside? ABC is going to show everyone’s old, embarrassing audition footage.
“I was really hoping that when the show moved to ABC that maybe that footage got lost in transit or something,” David laughs. “But no — they’ve been really good about holding on to that stuff!”
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