David Archuleta Makes Forbes’ Top 10
David’s hard work shows! Forbes indicates –
10. David Archuleta ($1 million, tie)
Season Seven’s runner-up is still tops in the eyes of many fans. In addition to modeling for Bench, he enjoyed some success with two albums in 2012—Begin and Forevermore (exclusively in the Philippines)—and will spend the next two years on hiatus while he works in Chile as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It is a pity that TV5′s Nandito Ako was NOT included in the annotation cos for sure, THAT was a big source of his earnings for that period. After-all, IT was the fulcrum of his stay in Manila. Take note also that he is the only one listed who did not have a major CD release or US TV/movie projects during the time period measured.
Forbes’ explains how they compile their listing
Methodology: Our numbers are based on estimated income earned from May 2011 to May 2012, before subtracting taxes, American Idol’s cut and any remaining fees for agents, lawyers and managers. The totals were compiled with the help of data from Pollstar, RIAA and others, as well as interviews with industry insiders including managers, publicists, agents and some of the musicians themselves.
Lyndsey Parker of Reality Rocks featured Forbes’ listing and had this to say –
Other slight surprises on the list include David Cook, David Archuleta, and Kellie Pickler–all of whom recently parted ways with their record labels, but seem to be doing just fine…
Below is Forbes’ full top Idol earners list.
1. Kelly Clarkson ($8 million)
2. Carrie Underwood ($5 million, tie)
2. Daughtry ($5 million, tie)
4. Scotty McCreery ($4 million)
5. Jennifer Hudson ($3 million)
6. Jordin Sparks ($2 million)
7. Adam Lambert ($1.5 million)
8. Katharine McPhee ($1.1 million, tie)
8. Kellie Pickler ($1.1 million, tie)
10. David Archuleta ($1 million, tie)
10. David Cook ($1 million, tie)
Click on the image above to take you to the Forbes article. Isn’t it interesting that the two Davids are still neck and neck, after all these years? And that half of the top earners are actual winners of the show. Goes to show that AI is indeed good jump off point for a career, if you have real talent and heart to pursue one
But since David is uber-frugal, only willing to spend money on food (a-hahahahahaha), he might just come out on top of that tie, hehe.
CONGRATS OUR DAVID!
~ jackryan4DA
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Isn’t it great?! Despite being away, David still made it to Forbes’ Top 10 listing?
Woot-woot!
Best Latino AI audition -- you betcha!
@mjsbigblog
Who are the Top 10 earning American Idol alums of 2012? Check out the Forbes list! –> http://bit.ly/VnXwqN
A lot comments at MJ’s re the veracity of the Forbes list. Looks like someone asked Forbes directly and got a reply from them —
Shareen Ng 3 hours ago
How do you reconcile making this list with the fact that you don’t have access to their real finances? If they don’t report to Pollstar or have their managers contact you, does that seem fair to insinuate by omission that they didn’t earn their millions?
Reply AuthorZack O’Malley Greenburg,
Forbes Staff 1 hour agoA fair question — in addition to checking Pollstar and Nielsen numbers, and reaching out to managers/agents/publicists, we talk to industry insiders to fill in the blanks as best we can. At the end of the day, we don’t have a copy of their tax returns, but Forbes prides itself in getting as close to that as possible.
Wow -- good for David! It is quite amazing that he earned so much, although we know how hard he worked and all the projects he had going. The real story will be how much her earns from May 2012 to May 2013. I bet he still has a high income with residuals from all the work he did just before he left.
@benchtm:
Benchsetter @DavidArchie named 1 of the 10 Top Earning American Idols for 2012 by Forbes. Mentioned about Bench also. http://onforb.es/X834oT
Now you see why am bumed that the Nandito Ako series by TV5 was not mentioned in Forbes’ annotation
Cool to see this! Thanks for the update JR!
From Idol Chatter: