Country singer Carrie Underwood is the highest earning "American Idol" winner, according to a new Forbes report.
Reality shows are the new "in" thing and have taken over the regular TV soaps. People tune in to more reality shows than they do for their favorite daily soaps. This is not surprising considering the number of reality shows that are being aired in current times. "American Idol" remains the most popular of them all.
As entertaining as these shows are, their authenticity has often been questioned. It is often seen that winners of popular talent shows often "fizz out" and get lost in the "crowd" after their win, though a few manage to survive the initial struggle. Forbes released a new report that looked into which American Idol alum managed to stay above the rest when it came to drawing in the big bucks.
According to the report, country singer Carrie Underwood is currently the highest paid American Idol alum also making her the highest earning show winner for 2013. Underwood was the winner of the 4th season of the show in 2005. Her earnings of a whopping $83 million over the past five years have helped her bag the Forbes title. Her "Blown Away" North American concert tour and an Olay endorsement deal helped her make a hefty $31 million in 2013 alone.
Kelly Clarkson, the first winner of the show featured second on the list but came nowhere close to Underwood in terms of the money she made last year. According to the report, Clarkson earned approximately $7 million last year, bulk of which also came from her concert tour. Phillip Phillips (Season 11 winner) and Adam Lambert (Season 8's runner-up) rounded up the top four after making $5 million each last year.
The 13th season of the show premiered yesterday (January 15). Keith Urban retained his role as a judge on the show. Last year, a lot was said about the evident cold war between the female judges of the show - Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. They also expressed their views about not wanting to judge the show in the presence of each other. To keep away from controversies and remain in the good books of everyone, the show producers did away with both of them and instead roped in Jennifer Lopez again and Harry Connick, Jr.
Randy Jackson, who was the sole remainder of the original American Idol judging panel departed from the show this year. According to reports, the American bassist revealed that the reason for quitting the show was merely because it "was just time" to move on to what comes next.
