Nancy Lee Grahn is temporarily changing the channel on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
After Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan made a joint appearance on the late-night talk show on Jan. 23 to chat about season 24 of American Idol, the General Hospital star made it clear on social media that she would not be tuning in to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s show that night.
“See ya next week @jimmykimmel,” Grahn, 69, wrote on Threads, where she often speaks out about various political issues. “I refuse to even look at @carrieunderwood.”
While Underwood, 42, has previously kept her political views private, she performed “America the Beautiful” inside the Capitol Rotunda during President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” the American Idol winner said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”
In the comments of Grahn’s post, comedian Kathy Griffin joined dozens of other Threads users in echoing the actress’ sentiment.
“Yeah, no love for maga Carrie. It’s not just about political disagreements,” Griffin, 65, wrote, while another user added, “Boycott Underwood, wherever & whenever. Sorry Jimmy.”
Once her comments began making headlines, however, Grahn emphasized that her intention was not to “slam” the late-night host.
“Truth matters,” she wrote alongside an article about her “slamming” Kimmel, 58. “I LOVE Jimmy Kimmel & watch him every night. I would never ‘slam’ him.”
“I simply said I would watch him next week because I didn’t want to look at Carrie Underwood (for obvious reasons) who was his guest that night,” she continued. “Come on, guys, I’m not worth the clickbait.”
In addition to Underwood’s performance at Trump’s inauguration, fans previously suspected that the country singer’s 2018 song “The Bullet” was making a political statement with the lyrics, “You can blame it on hate or blame it on guns / But mamas ain’t supposed to bury their sons.”
However, in a 2019 interview with The Guardian, Underwood explained that she tried to keep her political views out of the spotlight because nothing was ever that “black and white.”
“I try to stay far out of politics if possible, at least in public, because nobody wins,” Underwood said at the time. “It’s crazy. Everybody tries to sum everything up and put a bow on it, like it’s black and white. And it’s not like that.”
“Immediately, people said, ‘Oh, you have a song about gun control!’ It was more about the lives that were changed by something terrible happening,” she added. “And it does kind of bug me when people take a song, or take something I said, and try to pigeonhole or force me to pick a side or something. It’s a discussion — a long discussion.”