7. Adam Lambert: $2.5 million
Solo tour dates and record sales accounted for much of Lambert’s earnings; after touring as the frontman of Queen, he’s set for a much higher payday on next year’s list.
Carrie Underwood got her start by winning the fourth season of American Idol—but that’s not the only way the star singer is intertwined with the show that made her famous.
Underwood is the top-earning Idol alum for the second consecutive year, pulling in $10 million before taxes, thanks to six-figure nightly fees on the road, music sales and a lucrative role in NBC’s The Sound of Music: Live! It’s a prodigious sum, to be sure, but a sharp decrease from the $31 million she banked in 2013.
That drop mirrors the recent performance of Idol itself. Last year’s finale drew just 6.6 million viewers, down from 14.3 million the year before, but still a respectable total in the grand scheme of things—and enough to remain a cultural force.
“I think it’s the gold standard,” said Harry Connick, Jr., one of the show’s judges, in a recent interview with ForbesLife. “There’s probably a couple reasons. One, it’s been around the longest. Two, it’s the most streamlined of all these shows. I mean, there’s no gimmicks, there’s no teams. It’s just a bunch of people auditioning and the group gets smaller and smaller and smaller until eventually it’s one person who wins.”
Though American Idol’s alums rarely out-earn its celebrity judges—all of whom reportedly earn seven- or eight-figure salaries—nine of the show’s graduates broke the million-dollar mark over the past year.
After Underwood, Kelly Clarkson ranks second with $8 million. Idol’s inaugural winner also rakes in six figures for every concert; in addition, she earned big from holiday album Wrapped In Red, which was the fifth platinum solo album of her career.
Phillip Phillips, the show’s Season 11 champ, rounds out the top three with earnings of $5 million. One of Idol’s most successful graduates in recent years, Phillips’ latest release, Behind The Light, debuted at No. 7 on the charts with opening week sales of 41,000.
Coming in at No. 4 is something of a surprise: Taylor Hicks. The Season 5 winner earned $3.5 million, beating some of Idol’s better-known names thanks to a Vegas residency and 114 dates in our scoring period.
“It’s always good to come to the party first, in all different aspects, whether it be television or film or a Vegas residency,” said Hicks, who also owns a restaurant in Alabama and plans to release a country album this spring. “I think this is just one of those instances where the opportunity to be the first Idol to have a Vegas show was perfect fit.”
Other notable names on the list include Scotty McCreery—who finished in a fourth-place tie with Hicks on the strength of his third album, See You Tonight, which sold a quarter-million copies—and Adam Lambert, who landed at No. 7 with $2.5 million. After touring as the frontman of Queen, the latter is set for a much higher payday on next year’s list.
Our estimates are calculated with the help of data from Pollstar, the RIAA and Nielsen SoundScan as well as industry veterans, the artists’ handlers and some of the musicians themselves. These numbers reflect pretax earnings from June 2013 through June 2014.
As for Idol itself, the show will have to reverse its negative viewership trend in order to continue its historic run. Connick, for one, is optimistic.
“I think no show can keep 30 million viewers forever,” said Connick. “But it’s still Fox ’s number one show. It’s a big, big show. And I think as long as it continues to produce superstars, it will remain relevant .”
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