Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert Among Highest-Paid American Idols
Reality TV sure is a real money maker!
Forbes magazine has released a list of the highest-paid American Idol alumni, with Carrie Underwood and Adam Lambert topping this year's chart. The magazine calculated the singers' earnings on a pre-tax basis, before subtracting agent and manager fees.
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"[American Idol is] a money-making machine," Adam Kluger, the president of brand partnership company the Kluger Agency told Forbes. "It's like having the Super Bowl every week."
Earning an estimated $20 million, Underwood, 28, has five Grammy Awards to her name, and in 2010, made her feature film debut in Soul Surfer. Having recently surpassed Kelly Clarkson as the best-selling Idol of all time, Underwood's most recent disc, Play On, has sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. since its 2009 release. (Clarkson ranked fifth on the current Forbes list, with estimated earnings of $2.5 million.)
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Lambert, 29, makes his first appearance on the Forbes list for his $6 million payday between May 2010 and May 2011. The season 8 runner-up -- who tied for second place with Chris Daughtry -- played 116 concerts worldwide in the last 12 months, Forbes reports.
Though Lambert and Daughtry, 31, had strong showings, the list was largely dominated by Idol's female contingent. Oscar winner and current Weight Watchers spokeswoman Jennifer Hudson landed in sixth place with $2 million, but was bested by season 3 runner-up Fantasia Barino and season 6 champ Jordin Sparks.
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The full Forbes list of highest-paid American Idols is as follows:
1. Carrie Underwood: $20 million
2. Chris Daughtry: $6 million (tie), Adam Lambert: $6 million (tie)
3. Fantasia Barrino: $4 million
4. Jordin Sparks: $3 million
5. Kelly Clarkson: $2.5 million
6. Jennifer Hudson: $2 million
7. Kellie Pickler: $1.8 million
8. Clay Aiken: $1.5 million
9. Katharine McPhee: $1 million (tie), David Archuleta: $1 million (tie), David Cook: $1 million (tie)
By Allison Corneau for Us Weekly. For more Channel Surfing, click here.
Tell Us What You Think
13This list is crap. Kelly Clarkson didn't tour or anything at that time. She always makes more than anyone else when she is touring, etc. She will be at the top of Forbes next list.
I couldn't said it better my self Ralinda.
Where's Kris Allen on this list - you know the guy who WON Idol over Adam? What?! He's not on here?! NOOOOOO really? Um yeah that's cause ADAM was the REAL WINNER and the BEST Idol has ever or WILL EVER SEE!!!!
@Michelle, Adam played at a festival with 70K+ attendance, and several shows in Asia with 15K-20K. In fact, in Singapore, Adam played to a larger crowd than Chris at the same event. You're a really sad person that you are jealous of a newcomer doing as well as an old-timer. I actually looked at Chris's box scores not so long ago on MJs Big Blog and Chris's average attendance was 5K. In fact, isn't he going to play at Mystic Lake Casino, where Adam played last year?
I agree with Maryann... And, that was a 2 night venue and I bought 4 for the added show, out 50 seats left which sold out at the box office the day of the show. Plus, he has some new merchandise on ALFC, his fanclub site, that is fashionable and flying out of the wharehouse. I would like to add, this was with only ONE album out and he still managed to perform for an hour and 20 minutes.
EDIT: I should say the tour sold out at the vast majority of venues, or the tour nearly sold out completely.
@Michelle Noway Where the heck did you get an idea like that? Adam sold out almost 15,000 seats in Costa Mesa last year. Adam played mostly mid-sized venues during the Glam Nation Tour, and a heck of a lot of them. Oh, and the tour nearly sold out at the vast majority of the venues. A 1,500 - 10,000 seat venue is not a club, sweetie. Man, it takes a lot of butthurt to be ticked off over a tie.
LOL MIchelle Noway. While Adam Lambert did play at many theater and some club venues, he also played festivals and amphitheaters. There was a huge range of venue sizes on the tour, especially internationally where he played to some of his largest audiences. Plus he played twice the number of shows as Daughtry during this time. He worked hard for his money!
Wow, Carrie made more than the next four on the list combined. She is the best.
Go Adam! Your Glamberts are so proud & can't wait for your next album & tour!
Adam played clubs while Daughtry played stadiums. This list is bullcrap.
Oh wow Adam Lambert is really making bank. Love him!
Yay Adam! I and my friends helped build that empire of his. Well-deserved.