It seems like American Idol are running a little cheap with their pockets when it comes to their judges. Reports suggest that newcomer Carrie Underwood had to swallow her pride and take a solid pay cut to come aboard.
Recently, Life & Style comes out with a report detailing rumors of a pay cut. Allegedly, ABC settles for Carrie when she asks for less money. Apparently, they were clamoring for someone else even more. "It's well known internally that Miley Cyrus was the network and the producers' first choice to replace Katy," their source claims. "But topping Katy's already-high salary was never on the table with Miley. Katy's enormous salary was an outlier and it was that high because ABC was asking for a lot of her time away from making music and performing, more time than she had ever given something other than her own pop career."
Carrie Underwood Reportedly Takes a Pay Cut From Katy Perry's Salary on American Idol
However, it's Carrie Underwood that nails the job. Moreover, their source claims that she makes the call to take less in order to see the show thrive. She has real investment in seeing American Idol succeed, so she doesn't ask for Katy Perry level money. Rumors suggest Underwood settles for at least half of Perry's $25 million salary at the end of negotiations.
Now, ABC executives and American Idol producers let out a sigh of relief. They're ecstatic to see how Carrie handles the new opportunities. They do have their own reasonable set of concerns though. "The bosses are relieved to have a glamorous country star of Carrie's caliber on board, plus she has the history with the show," the source states. "The big question here is whether she's got the temperament to handle this pressure as the bosses are banking on her to hit the ground running and deliver big ratings, plus how she reacts to the inevitable online trolling."
