'Cobra Kai' Creators Talk Carrie Underwood's Surprise Cameo in Season 4 (Exclusive)
Season 4 of Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix, and one of the biggest surprises from the season is country music superstar Carrie Underwood making a cameo appearance in Episode 9. Underwood performed at the All Valley Karate Tournament in the episode, and the appearance comes one year after she tweeted about the show. PopCulture.com recently caught up with the co-creators and executive producers of Cobra Kai, who revealed how they got Underwood to appear on the show.
"It was one of those things where we had seen after the show was on Netflix, you started to see more and more Twitter activity from celebrity fans," co-creator Jon Hurwitz told PopCulture. "And she's somebody who we were all excited to see, loved the show, she and her family watched it. And when we were in our writing phase of Season 4, we were excited about the All Valley tournament, and we always joke around about the All Valley karate boards, some of our favorite characters. That group reminds us of in the writer's room, we're putting on a big show and how do we make this great, and we're dealing with the nitty-gritty decisions like they are."
Hurwitz also talked about how the fans on set for the tournament didn't know Underwood was going to be there until it was announced while filming. "It'll be a surprise to fans," he said. "We can say that when we were filming that day, we didn't tell the background crowd who was going to be out there, so they are all sitting there, hundreds of them in the stands knowing that they're watching us make the show.
"And suddenly, Ron is up there in the middle of the mat announcing this musical performer, Carrie Underwood, and she shows up out there. And the reaction that you see from that crowd is authentic because they were shocked. They were stunned, and they were rocking out as she gave this incredible performance that we were all blown away by. It was a really special thing for the show. One of our most memorable days on set in all the seasons, and we can't wait for people to see it."
Underwood, 38, rose to fame after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. She has since released eight studio albums, won seven Grammy Awards, 17 American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards and 23 CMT Music Awards.