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.
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.
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.
1. Carrie Underwood: $10 million
2. Kelly Clarkson: $8 million
3. Phillip Phillips: $5 million
4. Scotty McCreery: $3.5 million (tie)
4. Taylor Hicks: $3.5 million (tie)
6. Daughtry: $3 million
7. Adam Lambert: $2.5 million
8. Fantasia Barrino: $2 million
9. Kellie Pickler: $1 million
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomal...an-idols-2014/
