After crowning Abi Carter the winner of American Idol Season 22 and bidding Katy Perry adieu, followers are excited to see one other season kick off in March on the 2025 TV schedule. Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood is returning as a choose alongside Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie to assist shine a highlight on undiscovered expertise. Dozens of contestants will put their lives and jobs on maintain for this chance, and that begs the query: Do American Idol contestants receives a commission to look on the ABC singing competitors?
The brief reply is sure, contestants who make it to a sure level within the season are paid for his or her time. There are reportedly different perks alongside the way in which but additionally some bills. Let’s break all of it down.
American Idol Pays Its High 24 Contestants Per Episode
Most of what’s recognized about how a lot American Idol artists make on the present comes from the 2011 e book American Idol: The Untold Story by Richard Rushfield, who coated the present as an leisure internet editor for the LA Occasions. Rushfield reviews (by way of Fox Enterprise) that American Idol begins paying its contestants as soon as they attain the High 24.
Nonetheless, to be able to earn a efficiency charge, they need to first be a part of the American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists, which prices $1,600. After that they’re paid by episode, with the size of the episode figuring out how a lot they earn. As of 2016, musicians earned $1,571 for two-hour reveals, $1,303 for one-hour reveals and $910 for half-hour episodes.
With this supply materials popping out over a decade in the past, it appears possible that these numbers could have modified — particularly for the reason that present has moved from Fox to ABC since then — however contestants’ contracts could preserve them from divulging such monetary particulars publicly.
Idol Contestants Earn Extra Stipend If They Make It To High 12
The longer you final on the present, the higher the advantages, apparently, as Richard Rushfield additionally stated that when the artists attain the High 12, they’re given a stipend of $450 per week. That apparently means garments for lots of the singers, and the creator wrote:
They go on a procuring journey with a vogue guide who works on the present they usually get like $450 per week to spend on no matter they need. However a whole lot of them dip into their very own pocket as a result of just a few hundred {dollars} would not go that far in a whole lot of these costly shops in Hollywood. The garments are theirs to maintain after the present.
At the least they get to maintain the garments! Nonetheless, I can see how that wouldn’t be some huge cash in the event that they’re not supplied a wardrobe from the present. One factor they’re supplied, nonetheless, is room and board. The High 12 contestants not need to pay for lodging, which looks as if it may very well be an enormous expense for the High 24 as much as that time.
How good the digs are relies on the season. Richard Rushfield factors out that on seasons the place the dwelling quarters are proven on the air, contestants have stayed in mansions, whereas in any other case they’re put up in flats which might be “nothing fancy, but it surely’s not squalor.”
Households Should Pay Their Personal Method To Attend Tapings
It seems like having family and friends attend tapings to help the contestants might show a bit tough for many who stay distant from Los Angeles. American Idol allegedly doesn’t pay for journey or lodge lodging for its contestants’ family members.
The American Idol Tour Was Fairly Profitable
One other large perk of creating it to the High 10 or 12 of an American Idol season was once the spot it earned you on the stay tour. The artists reportedly pulled in round $150,000 to journey for the present post-season. Nonetheless, the ultimate tour resulted in 2015 forward of Fox’s cancellation of the present. The tour was not resumed when ABC revived it in 2018.
How A lot Does The American Idol Winner Earn?
Early winners of American Idol like Kelly Clarkson and Ruben Studdard walked away with a powerful $1 million on prime of a document deal. The greenback quantity has gone down since then, per American Songwriter, which reported in 2024 that Idol winners get a money prize of $125,000. Upon completion of their first album, the artist will obtain one other $100,000. The location reviews that artists are then given an advance of $300,000 for his or her second album, which is required to be paid again in opposition to future earnings.
In 2019, The Blast reported a distinct breakdown after seeing Season 17 third-place finisher Madison VanDenburg’s contract. The then-17-year-old’s paperwork stated that season’s winner would stroll away with $250,000 however could be accountable for lots of the prices of manufacturing their album.
The winner (who ended up being Laine Hardy) would signal with Hollywood Data, the place they might obtain $125,000 prematurely of their debut album and one other $125,000 upon completion. The winner would additionally reportedly make $1,000 per week throughout recording and one other $1,000 per grasp recording turned in, receiving a 15% royalty charge for his or her first three albums.
The runner-up for that season (Alejandro Aranda) was probably eligible for $87,500 to start out an album and one other $87,000 when it was completed, if Hollywood Data selected to signal them too. All three finalists recorded three authentic tracks whereas competing on American Idol, which have been allegedly allowed for use nonetheless the High 3 wished.
Getting On Tv And Making Connections Is A Useful Half Of Being On American Idol
Whereas lots of the contestants will reportedly be compensated for his or her appearances on the favored singing competitors, nobody there (besides possibly the finalists) is getting wealthy from their time on American Idol alone. Artists go on the present for the chance for nationwide publicity, and that possible stays essentially the most priceless factor they will get from the competitors.
Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood and Fantasia Barrino are just a few early-season singers who discovered their fame on the present, however 22 seasons later, American Idol continues to provide common musicians. Two alumni have been even nominated for awards on the 2025 Grammy Awards in Benson Boone (Season 19) — who made headlines for adjusting himself throughout his efficiency as a Greatest New Artist nominee — and Fortunate Daye, who competed beneath his actual title, David Brown, on Season 4.
It’s additionally a good suggestion for artists to make connections throughout their time on the present that would result in relationships and alternatives afterward. Only one instance of that’s Season 20 winner Noah Thompson teaming up with runner-up HunterGirl to co-headline a tour following their time on the present in 2022.
Artists typically need to sacrifice for the chance to affix American Idol, and whereas we don’t have a lot present info on what they earn, it does seem that the contestants do obtain some form of cost as soon as they attain a particular degree of the competitors.
Tune in to see who can be making the large bucks when American Idol Season 23 premieres at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, March 9, on ABC and streaming the following day with a Hulu subscription.