Cowell beats Seacrest out in top earners list

Scranton's Prime Time TV Examiner consults with top earner Simon Cowell at Madame Tussaud's in Las Vegas.

Simon Cowell must've known there's money in prime-time television. The often unkind American Idol judge was ranked number one on Forbes 2009 Top Earning Males in Prime-time Television list. The magazine estimates that Cowell earned seventy five million dollars last year. Cowell beat out American Idol cohort Ryan Seacrest, who brought home about thirty eight millions dollars of bacon. Sandwiched between the Idols lies Donald Trump, host of The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, at fifty million.

Although not in the same tax bracket as Cowell, Tyra Bank's estimated thirty million a year ranked her ontop of Forbes 2009 Top Earning Females in Prime-time Television. The host of America's Next Top Model almost doubled her earnings over second runner up Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy), who procured about eighteen million.

Top Ten Males

1. Simon Cowell American Idol (75 million dollars)
2. Donald Trump The Apprentice (50 million dollars)
3. Ryan Seacrest American Idol (38 million dollars)
4. Charlie Sheen Two and a Half Men (21 million dollars)
5. Steve Carell The Office (21 million dollars)
6. Howie Mandel Deal or No Deal (15 million dollars)
7. Kiefer Sutherland 24 (13 million dollars)
8. Jeff Foxworthy Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (11 million dollars)
9. Hugh Laurie House (10 million dollars)
10. David Caruso CSI: Miami (9 million dollars)

Top Ten Females

1. Tyra Banks America's Next Top Model (30 million dollars)
2. Katherine Heigl Grey's Anatomy (18 million dollars)
3. Marg Helgenberger CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9.5 million dollars)
4. Eva Longoria Parker Desperate Housewives (9 million dollars)
5. Mariska Hargitay Law and Order: SVU (8.5 million dollars)
6. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (tie) The New Adventures of Old Christine (8 million dollars)
7. Maura Tierney (tie) ER (8 million dollars)
8. Tina Fey 30 Rock (7 million dollars)
9. Marcia Cross Desperate Housewives (6.2 million dollars)
10. Jennifer Love Hewitt Ghost Whisperer (6 million dollars)

Trivia: Name the first winners of both American Idol and America's Next Top Model (answer in next article) Answer to last article: Keith Michael.

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