American Idol has been on for so many years that if you can’t remember who won, say, season 14, it’s forgivable. But if you were actually on the show and you can’t remember who won season 2 — well, then you’d be Kelly Clarkson.
Welcoming Clay Aiken to her talk show on Dec. 16, Kelly reminisced about the time they toured together. “I won the season before you, but we toured after you won,” she said, which caused Clay to make a horrified face. In fact, Ruben Studdard won that season, not Clay.
“After I came in second,” he corrected her. “Wait, you what?” Kelly replied. “After I came in second,” he repeated. Kelly then turned to the camera and said, “So sorry, Ruben, I totally remembered that,” as Clay cracked up. “Look, I’m 42, bro. OK, like, I forgot,” Kelly said. “It’s been 20 years,” Clay agreed. “We are both getting older.”
“I love how [Ruben’s] gonna be like, ‘I won, but fine,'” Kelly continued. “Oh, he will be calling me, without question,” Clay agreed.
Clay then went on to reminisce about how Kelly used to break into his house to “rearrange” his fridge and whip him at Scrabble because she memorized “every word that has a q but not a u.”
Kelly also remembered how during that tour Clay was a much bigger draw than she was.
“No one cared that I was there. No one,” she insisted. “I’m telling you, it was as if I didn’t exist. It was like Elvis was in the building every night. You didn’t even have to win, you didn’t win and then people were losing it over you.”
Clay responded, “Well, you exist now, darling,” as the audience cheered.
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