Luke Bryan Defends Katy Perry from American Idol Criticism, Says They Get 'Set Up' as Judges

As Season 21 aired, Perry was accused of mom shaming by a contestant and even booed by the show's audience for criticizing the amount of glitter on another wannabe-"Idol" following their performance. Some of that backlash spilled over onto social media as the season went on.

"When it comes to our fans being too hard on Katy, listen, Katy Perry's been dealing with stuff like that her whole career. We all get it," Luke Bryan said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I mean we're judging kids that people at home fall in love with. So we're not gonna bat 1,000 as judges. We're gonna send a kid through that may get controversial."

He added that, as judges, they do "get set up" and are forced to "kinda fall on the sword a lot of times" for the sake of the show, leading to viewers getting "very vocal on socials and stuff."

"My thing is, I think when me and [Lionel Richie] and Katy sit down at the desk, in our hearts, we're doing the best we can and Katy gets picked on for going out and trying to have fun making a TV show," he continued. "You can't be so safe in the moment that you're so homogenized you can't ever go for a joke or go for a fun moment."

Bryan said that being critical or going for a "fun moment" can be a risk, not knowing how it will eventually be "perceived" by the the contestants or those watching at home -- and said that while Katy got heat this time around, "it may be my year next year."

"We're conditioned, calloused for it and Katy's been dealing with that ... it makes me appreciate her even more, just how big of a scale she's had to deal with that her whole career," he concluded.

Luke, Katy and Lionel have all served as judges on the ABC revival of "American Idol" since it returned in 2018 -- and, at least when it comes to Bryan, it doesn't sound like he'll be walking away from that paycheck anytime soon.

"My future with Idol, as long as the show is growing, popping and we feel like we're doing beautiful work as a show -- and we felt like this year was what we had all worked together to get to -- I think that, as long as the vibe feels it's onward and upward and we're getting emotionally moved and we're telling the story of kids and the American spirit and it's a show that kids can sit down and parents can cry and laugh together and have fun, it's gonna be a tough show for me and Lionel and Katy to walk away from," he told the outlet.

"American Idol" Season 21 concluded last month, with Hawai native Iam Tongi getting crowned the winner.