Luke Bryan Will Return to American Idol Tonight After Fast COVID Recovery

Luke Bryan will return to American Idol for a live broadcast tonight, sources tell Variety,after being sidelined from last weeks first live episode of the season and also tonights Academy of Country Music Awards as a result of contracting COVID-19.

Shortly after this story was first published, Bryan tweeted (and the Idol account quote-tweeted) a short video message in which he declared, Hey guys, its Luke. Im back and feeling awesome and Im so glad to be back at the judges table.

The country superstar being cleared for a return to work suggests, under current protocols, that he has tested negative for at least two weeks now. If thats true, it leaves questions about the timeline of Bryans diagnosis and recovery, as it was only last Monday, April 12, that he announced on social media he had contracted the virus and would be unable to appear on that nights episode, where he was replaced as a judge by Paula Abdul.

If the two-week rule is in place and being honored, his return tonight means Bryan would actually have been testing negative by the time of last Mondays announcement, yet benched at the time nonetheless for still being within the two-week safety window for producing consistent negative results after a positive test.

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