Yoncé Tsukumo

Mariah Carey was reportedly paid $18 million to judge one season of American Idol. Nicki Minaj got a reported $12 million to sit at the same table. Months after it ended, Carey said it was like "going to work every day in hell with Satan." She added that she was "just playing." She didn't say who Satan was. In the video below, Minaj walks off the panel mid-fight with Carey, and Carey says: "That was my move." Then you see the tape from the same auditions that leaked months before Fox aired them, and Carey on Hot 97 in November 2013, saying the Satan line herself. Carey signed in July 2012. She later said she had expected "a three-person panel." Two months later, Fox added Minaj and Keith Urban. In October, that tape leaked. Minaj could be heard saying, "I'm gonna knock you out." Barbara Walters said Carey had hired extra security. Fox aired the fight in the video in January 2013. By May the show had its lowest ratings in 12 seasons, and Carey and Minaj both left. That November, on Hot 97, she said of the offer: "They gave me a nice dangling monetary moment, and I was just like, 'Okay.'" The case for Carey: she named no one. Nick Cannon, then her husband, said she was "talking about the situation in general." Carey's $18 million from 2012 is about $26 million today. Her Christmastime tour plays London's O2 on November 30. Minaj said in 2023 she would judge Idol again for $30 million. Would you spend a year in hell next to someone you can't stand for $18 million?