Report: 'American Idol' Tops Forbes List of TV's Biggest Moneymakers

Bringing In Big Bucks

KANTAR MEDIA has tracked TV ad estimates, and FORBES ranks the shows by how much ad revenue they generated -- and AMERICAN IDOL is the top moneymaker on TV. Another music-based show, The X FACTOR came in second.

Despite slightly lower ratings this season "and a 6% drop in revenue over last year, AMERICAN IDOL still holds the top spot with an estimated $6.64 million every half-hour," notes THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. "The X FACTOR's inaugural season raised an estimated $5.55 million in ad revenue per half-hour for FOX. But FORBES says those numbers were based on predictions before the show premiered -- who can forget SIMON COWELL's 20 million viewers prediction? -- and not with the average 12 million viewers per episode in mind."

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