Some viewers criticized American Idol’s Carrie Underwood for body-shaming a contestant on the show. Underwood said she could not stop looking at her “baby knees.” The singer explained what baby knees are and even got up to show hers. The 42-year-old singer co-judges the show with Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. After that, Bryan asked, “Her what?”
Like everyone else, upon hearing “baby knees,” he got confused. Underwood said that it’s when a person looks like they have a face in their knees. She added, “My knees were in a magazine saying how Prince George’s face is in Carrie Underwood’s knees.”
When the royal couple had their baby, her knees were in the headlines.
View this post on Instagram
She stood up after this interaction and announced that she could make them (her knees) sing. Underwood moved her knees around and portrayed them as if they were singing. Many people found this to be harmless and funny. One user commented, “My daughter has them too! So funny, Carrie.” Another one said, “Hahaha, that’s funny.”
The Royal Knee. 8/7c. 🦵👀 @carrieunderwood #americanidol pic.twitter.com/VGFVRlpZiB
— American Idol (@AmericanIdol) February 2, 2026
While some may have seen this as body-shaming the contestant, Underwood also related to her on a personal level. However, many Reddit users could not refrain from noticing the harm that even simple comments on the body can do.
The user wrote, “I NEVER want to hear ANYONE tell me that nobody notices all the little things I’m self-conscious about because this poor woman is sitting at home somewhere hearing Carrie Underwood say ‘I couldn’t stop staring at her baby knees.”
Oh man, I’m dumb. Sorry I talk about silly things sometimes. Now my kids want to look at my knees. pic.twitter.com/q5NOIVn4Kv
— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) February 3, 2026
Another user said they were feeling terrible for the contestant. They also called her “poor girl,” sympathizing with her after the body-shaming comment. One Instagram user tried to explain, “I learned at a very young age that our minds make faces out of anything with a certain geometrical pattern, and I’ve never stopped thinking about that since. This is proof.” Underwood heard about the criticism and added a post on her X account about saying “silly things,” and joking that her kids want to see her knees.
Earlier, she may not have realized that her comments could be interpreted as body-shaming instead of a silly joke. The official account of American Idol also posted about the 2026 season episode with the royal knees, drawing the same Prince George parallel.
