Carrie Underwood Named Top-Earning ‘American Idol’ of 2014

For the second year in a row, Carrie Underwood was the highest-paid 'American Idol' alumnus, earning the title again in 2014.

According to Forbes, the country superstar pulled in $10 million before taxes in 2014, owing to concert fees, sales of her music and her lucrative role in the NBC production 'The Sound of Music: Live!'

That's still significantly less than the $31 million she earned in 2013, which Forbes attributes in part to the waning popularity of 'Idol' itself.

Other factors are the general decline of music sales across the board, as well as the fact that Underwood toured extensively in enormous venues in 2013, but performed relatively little in 2014, and only released new music toward the very end of the year.

Kelly Clarkson ranked second, earning $8 million, and Scotty McCreery came in at No. 4 with $3.5 million, tying with Taylor Hicks. Kellie Pickler earned right at a million dollars in 2014 -- enough to put her at No. 9.

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