Britney Spears has made a lot of money throughout her career — Celebrity Net Worth estimates her wealth at $70 million — but it was her paycheck from “The X Factor” that seemed to shock a lot of television industry insiders and fans alike. According to Business Insider, Spears made a whopping $15 million for the one season that she appeared on back in 2012. She even made history as one of the highest-paid judges on television at the time.
However, her stint on the show wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, according to Simon Cowell. He told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show in 2013 that while the show wanted to get an A-lister to add to their judging panel, Spears wasn’t as opinionated as the producers were hoping her to be. Cowell said, “I kind of booked someone who couldn’t talk, which is a bit of a problem when you want someone to judge.” He also said that Spears simply seemed “uncomfortable.” He also likened the experience to a dinner party, per E! News. “It’s like having a dinner party. You invite people for dinner and sometimes it’s a fun night, and other times it’s not as fun as you hoped it would be,” he added.
But it’s what Louis Walsh, a judge on the UK version of the show, claimed about Spears’ time on the reality competition that really surprised a lot of people.