'How I Met Your Mother' meets Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood will make her acting debut on "How I Met Your Mother" later this season.

The season 4 "American Idol" winner will guest-star on an episode of the CBS series, creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday (Jan. 6). The episode will likely air in March.

Her character, named Tiffany, is a "gorgeous enigma" who catches Ted's (Josh Radnor) eye. "What makes her even more intriguing," the creators say, "is the fact that she's a pharmaceutical rep, or Pharma Girl, which according to Barney [Neil Patrick Harris] has replaced nurses and stewardesses to become the Official New Profession of Hot Chicks."

Despite all that, we're reasonably confident that she's not the character in the show's title. More likely for that role? Rachel Bilson, who guests in Monday's (Jan. 11) 100th episode of the series as a woman who'll play a pivotal role in Ted's future. Bays and Thomas obviously don't want to tip their hands too much, but they do allow that Bilson's character is "very important" to the show's over-arching story.

Other guests on "HIMYM" in the near future include Amanda Peet as a co-worker of Marshall's (Jason Segel) on Jan. 18, and New York Yankee Nick Swisher and CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz later in the season.

Thomas also says the show has a Super Bowl-themed episode set to go for Feb. 8, the day after CBS airs Super Bowl XLIV. "There's a Barney [Neil Patrick Harris] story line that kind of leaps out of the Super Bowl," he says. Bays adds that it will "put events in motion for the rest of the season."

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