Kelly Clarkson Reveals American Idol "Lied" About Her Million Dollar Prize
The show's first champion just got so real about her winnings.
Kelly Clarkson has a big warning for anyone trying to strike it rich on reality TV: that prize money isn’t always what it seems. Nearly 24 years after she won the first season of American Idol in 2002, Clarkson made a shocking revelation about how she never actually got the grand prize she was initially promised.
The topic came up on the March 10 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, when the daytime host asked Traitors Season 4 winner Rob Rausch about his $220,800 prize pot. “Well, they still haven’t paid me,” Rausch replied. The response instantly resonated with Clarkson.
“I relate to this so hard-core,” Clarkson said. “Because when I was [on American Idol], they were like, ‘Oh, you win a million dollars or whatever, da da da.' No, you didn't. They lied. You did not, no. It was like a million dollars worth of investment in you.”
In American Idol’s early years, the grand prize was a million dollars, as well as a Ford car, since Ford was one of the show’s first core sponsors. However, Clarkson added that she never got a vehicle either. “And then they said you get a car. And I needed it, 'cause my car is bashed in and I couldn't afford the deductible,” Clarkson said. “And no, I did not get a car!”
What really got under her skin was learning the subsequent winners and even runner-ups got the prizes that she never did. "Then Clay Aiken, who didn't win the second season, got a car. And his mom! I was like, ‘What the f*ck?’” Clarkson said. “I remember Clay telling me that the second season. He was like, 'Yeah, they gave my mom one.' I was like, 'I'm gonna actually kick your *ss right now.'"
When the other talk show guest, Daniel Radcliffe, suggested that early reality show winners should be retroactively get prizes that their successors receive, Clarkson clarified that the car was not supposed to be a new addition after her season. “No, it was supposed to be the prize then!” Clarkson said, before turning to Rausch with a worrying warning: “That’s what I’m saying, you might not see it.”
