This isn’t the first time that America’s Got Talent has featured a substitute judge recently, as Sofia Vergara’s former Modern Family co-star stepped in for Heidi Klum earlier in Season 15.
Kelly Clarkson has known Simon Cowell since way back in 2002, when she won the very first season of American Idol, on which Simon Cowell was the famously hard-to-please judge of the panel.
Between their long showbiz relationship and the fact that Clarkson was already in the NBC family thanks to The Voice, she was a natural last-minute choice to take Cowell’s place.