Everybody… ‘Idol’s’ back, all right!

'American Idol' returns for Season 23 with a familiar blond face... and I'm not referring to Carrie Underwood.

A Backstreet Boy’s son tries out for Idol, because he wants it that way. (photo: ABC)

American Idol officially returned Sunday. And, as I vented in my recap of last week’s post-Oscars preview show, due to my disappointment existential crisis over new judge Carrie Underwood’s decision to perform at Donald Trump’s recent presidential inauguration, I’m trying to make all of my Season 23 articles as contestant-focused and judge-avoidant (or at least Underwood-avoidant) as possible.

Happily, the Idol producers themselves had the same idea this week (although I hesitate to speculate that they actually re-edited this episode to take the spotlight off their problematic new panelist). The episode barely acknowledged Carrie’s once-hyped casting, other than running some wholesome archival VHS footage of her at a high school talent show while Ryan Seacrest intoned, “Every success starts with a kid who dreamed big.” And after that, it was off to the races.

I suppose the Sunday contestant who’ll pull the most focus off of Carrie this week is 21-year-old Baylee Littrell, who upon entering the audition room with his streaked-and-tipped coif and pretty Tiger Beat looks elicited a greeting from Carrie of: “There’s something about you that looks familiar…”