By: Roshawn Watson
Sure they win a highly coveted music contract and instant fame, but do the American Idol winners actually get the paycheck to go with it? As reported yesterday on E News and Forbes, the top 10 American Idol earners (excluding the judges and people behind the scenes) are featured in the video below. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Forbes’ Top 10 “Idol” Earners of 2009:
- Carrie Underwood – $14 million
- Jennifer Hudson – $5 million
- Kelly Clarkson- $4.2 million
- Jordin Sparks – $3.1 million
- Kellie Pickler- $2.3 million
- Clay Aiken- $2.2 million
- Chris Daughtry – $2 million
- David Cook- $2 million
- David Archuleta- $1.3 million
- Taylor Hicks – $300,000
According to Forbes Celebrity 100 for 2010 (only measures entertainment income)
- Ryan Seacrest earned a total of $50 million
- Simon Cowell earned a total of $80 million; income reportedly the same according to Enews (2011)
- Randy Jackson earns approximately $5 million (per Enews)
- Jennifer Lopez will earn approximately $12 million (per TMZ) in 2010; raise to $25 million (2011)
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Image Credits: Maria Sansone, netmen! leeeeeeleeeeee Flickr
Not a bad chunk of change at all!!!
My recent post Three Keys To Motivation And It Has Little To Do With Money
Hey Sam,
I was even more surprised by the disparity between the judges/host and the winners. Paula made between $5-8 million. I don't know about Randy and Kara, but they are believed to make more than Paula but no where near Simon. By far, the judges/host are the real talent, and the winners fair pretty well.
Amazing when you think that all of these people were once just standing in a crowd, hoping to get to audition. Hopefully they hire good people to manage that for them, so they still have a piece in twenty years.
My recent post My Problem with Dave Ramsey
Hey Jon, Thanks for visiting and commenting. Hopefully, they learn money management, business ownership, and investing skills themselves too. I think there are way too many leeches in the entertainment scene. Bad advice and parasitic relationships also cause many of these performers to go broke as well as their own poor spending habits. Their help often doesn't help and actually aids in their financial demise. That said, there are plenty of good financial professionals out there too. Discriminating between the two types is critical IMHO.
BTW, I heard Kelly Clarkson is VERY frugal (misc factoid)!
Its like you learn my mind! You seem to understand a lot about this, like you wrote the e-book in it or something. I believe that you can do with a few p.c. to force the message house a little bit, but other than that, that is excellent blog. A fantastic read. I’ll certainly be back.