Carrie Underwood Biggest Idol Money Maker

Last year was a good one for Miss Underwood.  In fact it was so good that she was able to rocket to the top of the money earners for all American Idol winners. Carrie is number one, by millions of dollars.

According to the latest esition of Forbes Magazine, the fiqures are calculated on a pre-tax basis, before subtracting agent and manager fees.

The 28 year old Underwood, a five time Grammy Award winner, earned an estimated 20 million dollars between May of 2010 and May of this year. 

Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry tied for second place, earch earning about 6 Million.  

Though Lambert and Daughtry  had strong showings, the list was largely dominated by Idol's female contingent. Oscar winner and current Weight Watchers spokeswoman Jennifer Hudson landed in sixth place with $2 million, but was bested by season 3 runner-up Fantasia Barino and season 6 champ Jordin Sparks.

The full Forbes list of highest-paid American Idols is as follows:

1. Carrie Underwood: $20 million
2. Chris Daughtry: $6 million (tie), Adam Lambert: $6 million (tie)
3. Fantasia Barrino: $4 million
4. Jordin Sparks: $3 million
5. Kelly Clarkson: $2.5 million
6. Jennifer Hudson: $2 million
7. Kellie Pickler: $1.8 million
8. Clay Aiken: $1.5 million
9. Katharine McPhee: $1 million (tie), David Archuleta: $1 million (tie), David Cook: $1 million (tie)

Those are some pretty impressive numbers.  But, the number one earner from the show is actually Ryan Seacrest.  The host of American Idol pulled down an amazing 61 million dollars last year.  That total exceeds all Idol winners....combined.