Inside “The Kelly Clarkson Show”’s ‘Bittersweet’ Finale and How Her Kids Supported Her During the Taping (Exclusive)

After seven seasons, the final episode of Kelly Clarkson’s eponymous talk show airs on Monday, Aug. 31

NEED TO KNOW

• The Kelly Clarkson Show comes to an end on Monday, Aug. 31
• PEOPLE attended the finale taping and spoke with the showrunner about the many moments that left an impact throughout the show’s seven-season run
• “I hope we made things a little bright,” says executive producer Alex Duda

After meeting Kelly Clarkson for the first time, the team behind The Kelly Clarkson Show knew their host was special. What they didn’t know, however, was that her talents would carry them through seven seasons, secure 24 Daytime Emmy Awards and lead the charge with one of the show’s “biggest cultural contributions” in its “Kellyoke” segment.

As Clarkson’s eponymous talk show comes to an end on Monday, Aug. 31, showrunner and executive producer Alex Duda feels, all in all, Clarkson was simply superb at her job.

“She was a connector. We learned that very early on,” Duda tells PEOPLE. “The way she connected to people — that’s why we knew we wanted a format where people sat on the couch next to each other, the celebrity next to the human-interest guest, because when you do that, extraordinary moments can happen that you won’t see anywhere else.”

Those are the types of moments that were included in Clarkson’s farewell-episode taping, which airs on Aug. 31. Back in February, the multi-hyphenate revealed her decision to step back as a daytime host in an effort to prioritize her children. Her final episode is fittingly a celebration of family, as well as the music and the people who kept the show going since it premiered in September 2019.

To mark the occasion, Duda, Clarkson and the team chose to make the final curtain call a “Kelly by Request” show. The special episode, which PEOPLE attended during the taping on June 5, taps a few of Clarkson’s biggest fans and some of the folks directly impacted by TKCS’s charitable efforts over the years, to request their favorite songs from her catalog. It was essentially a concert of greatest hits, deep cuts and making-of stories sprinkled in between — featuring one Kellyoke track, “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters, which Duda teases as the “most requested” ever.

Audience members were reminded throughout the taping that they were indeed the “last audience to see Kelly on this stage.”

“We just tried to make it be a celebration, especially that last episode, tried to make that be for the fans and help them help us say goodbye,” Duda says. “And for seven years, we listened to them like, ‘What songs did you want to hear and what moments did you want to see again?’ So it seemed like the right thing to do was to do a whole show that was by request.”

Kellyoke, the show’s long-running segment in which Clarkson covers other musicians’ songs, had a lot to do with that decision, too.

“Music was was basically our shortcut to connection, and I think it was one of our biggest cultural contributions was that our show became that rare place where artists could hear their own music reinterpreted by one of the greatest vocalists of our generation,” Duda says. “And then they liked it and they celebrated it. We loved it when artists would tweet, Céline Dion or Coldplay and so many. They loved it.”

Among a few of Clarkson’s biggest musical moments — including “Since U Been Gone” and “Stronger” – she also wrapped her run with a performance of her new single “I’d Be Lying.” During the taping, she ran it back a few times just to make sure it sounded just right as a send-off to the show she’s led for seven years.

Clarkson, who called the final taping ”bittersweet,” had two very special guests in the audience: her two children, River Rose, 12 and Remington Alexander, 10, whom she welcomed with late ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. The final episode featured throwback clips of the kids during their time on the show.

“It’s been seven years. We haven’t changed a bit, but when you look at River and Remy, you know time has gone by because they’re almost grown up and they did so great. They did so great,” Duda says of their finale appearance.

Toward the end of her final day on set, Clarkson’s children recalled their favorite moments from the series. For River, she told her mom it was, “watching you shine.”

While her kids didn’t request songs (just some ice cream and a trip to Disney, much to the delight of the audience), Clarkson still ended her daytime run to thunderous applause, on-stage photos with the 200-person crew, and an eventual TKCS staff party filled with what Duda says was “bawling and reminiscing.”

“I hope we made things a little bright. Especially in the pandemic, we felt that things were so dark that if we can control this one hour and make the sun shine, then we’ve accomplished something,” the showrunner explains. “And how do you do that? Like I said, music was our touch point all the time.”

The secret to the success of TKCS wasn’t just the music, or Clarkson’s natural ability to make virtually any song her own. It was the celebrities “dropping their guards,” and Clarkson’s mission to affect change by shining a light on the “heroes” who make up local communities (largely via her memorable Rad Human and Good Neighbors segments).

“She’s a mood shifter in the room,” Duda says. “And if we could do that for everybody at home, then we’ve accomplished something.”

After more than 1,200 episodes, the finale of The Kelly Clarkson Show airs on Monday, Aug. 31 via NBCUniversal Syndication Studios. Check your local listings.

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