Carrie Underwood Wants ‘Idol’ Finalists to Rock Out

Carrie Underwood has a digital video recorder on her bus, just so she can follow her favorites on 'American Idol' each week. She says she doesn't have a favorite ... then again, maybe she does, but she's not telling!

"I quit having favorites because I would have a favorite and then they would get voted off," Carrie revealed backstage last week at Idol Gives Back. "So I'm watching and waiting, and I'm sure at some point, I will have a favorite. But I will keep it to myself, because I never talk about who my favorites are!

"But I'm definitely watching. A lot of times, I have shows when 'American Idol' is going on, so I learned how to work the TiVo on the bus, so I can watch 'Idol' when I get offstage."

Something Carrie is itching to see this season is for one of the remaining six contestants to bust loose and really let their hair down.

"I think this year, compared to my year, it seems like people are more laid-back," she observes. "People are kind of singing slower songs and I'd really like someone to rock out at some point. But I don't know ... every year's different. Every year has its own cast of people. It's always nice to change things up and see what's going to happen."

But what matters more to Carrie than who will win this year's 'Idol' is the money this year's Idol Gives Back was able to raise for charity work. This year, more than $45 million dollars, which will benefit Children's Health Fund, Feeding America, Malaria No More, Save the Children's U.S. Programs and the United Nations Foundation.

"This is the stuff that really makes a difference," Carrie points out. "We're coming up on 10 seasons of American Idol. Twenty years later, people might not remember who won what ... but this is the kind of stuff that can make lives better. And people will remember that."