SurveyMonkey Reveals What America Really Thinks About Its Highest Paid Celebrities

Most Attractive, Talented and Overpaid Celebrities Ranked

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–This week, SurveyMonkey,
the world’s leading online survey platform, measured how Americans feel
about the celebrities ranked on the Forbes
2016 World Highest-Paid Celebrities list. The Forbes list, released
in July 2016, ranks the world’s 100 highest-earning celebrities over the
last 12 months. Income aside, how do Americans actually feel about the
richest celebrities? SurveyMonkey surveyed 2,500 Americans on various
dimensions, including most valued, overpaid, and respected, to get to
the bottom of this question.

Celebrities that Americans value the most

According to Forbes, Taylor Swift is this year’s highest paid celebrity.
But America doesn’t consider her their most valued celebrity. That
distinction goes to TV personality Ellen DeGeneres, who scores highest
on key positive dimensions (most respected, business savvy, contribution
to society and the person who Americans would most like to trade lives
with for a day) and scores low on negative dimensions – (least respected
and overpaid) – making her the celebrity that Americans value most.
According to SurveyMonkey findings, the top ten most valued celebrities
are as follows: 1. Ellen DeGeneres, 2. Taylor Swift, 3. Rolling Stones,
4. Adele, 5. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, 6. Garth Brooks, T7. LeBron
James and Dr. Phil McGraw, 9. Madonna and 10. James Patterson.

Overall, Americans seem to value women more than some of the men on the
list – selecting Taylor, Adele, Madonna and Ellen DeGeneres as part of
their top 10 overall most valued celebrities.

However, value does not translate into earnings for celebrity women,
with men making up 15 of the 20 highest-earning celebrities on the
Forbes list. With only Taylor Swift and Adele cracking the top 10
highest paid, the gender wage gap is very much alive. Americans polled
noted this, and seemed in agreement that men are overpaid. Their top
three most overpaid celebrities? LeBron James, Rush Limbaugh and Dr.
Phil McGraw.

Most Respected

Talented

Contributing to Society

Overpaid

1. Ellen DeGeneres

1. Adele

1. Ellen DeGeneres

1. LeBron James

T2. Adele

T2. LeBron James

2. Dr. Phil McGraw

2. Rush Limbaugh

T2. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

T2. Taylor Swift

T3. LeBron James

3. Dr. Phil McGraw

T4. LeBron James

4. Rolling Stones

T3. Rush Limbaugh

4. Taylor Swift

T4. Rush Limbaugh

5. Garth Brooks

5. Rolling Stones

5. Howard Stern

T4. Taylor Swift

6. Madonna

6. Taylor Swift

6. Madonna

7. Dr. Phil McGraw

T7. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

7. Garth Brooks

T7. One Direction

8. Garth Brooks

T7. Ellen DeGeneres

8. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

T7. Rihanna

9. Rolling Stones

T7. Roger Federer

9. Cristiano Ronaldo

T9. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

10. Roger Federer

10. David Copperfield

10. Madonna

T9. Ellen DeGeneres

When it comes to their favorite musicians, are
Americans weary of Taylor Swift?

Americans may not have yet forgiven Taylor Swift (#1 most attractive
celebrity and most attractive musician according to Americans) for her
breakup with Calvin Harris (#8 most attractive musician). Swift is
considered the #2 most overpaid musician and is the #3 musician that
Americans respect the least. However, Taylor can count herself lucky
that she doesn’t top the lists for most overpaid and least respected
musician. Those dubious awards go to famous Canadian bad-boy Justin
Bieber.

Sir Paul McCartney and other more seasoned artists are proving that
younger isn’t always better if you’re a musician. While the film
industry and professional sports leagues are dominated by younger
celebs, older musicians like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and
the Rolling Stones all poll well against younger musicians in key
dimensions like most attractive, business savvy and best brand.

Most Attractive

Business Savvy

Best Brand

Respect The Least

1. Taylor Swift

1. Paul McCartney

1. Rolling Stones

1. Justin Bieber

2. Rihanna

2. Taylor Swift

2. Paul McCartney

2. Sean Combs

3. Adele

3. Sean Combs

3. Taylor Swift

T3. Madonna

4. Paul McCartney

4. Madonna

4. AC/DC

T3. Taylor Swift

5. Garth Brooks

5. Rolling Stones

5. Bruce Springsteen

5. Rihanna

6. Kenny Chesney

6. U2

6. Adele

6. One Direction

7. Bruce Springsteen

7. Garth Brooks

7. Garth Brooks

T7. AC/DC

8. Calvin Harris

T8. Adele

8. U2

T7. U2

9. U2

T8. Bruce Springsteen

9. Madonna

9. Garth Brooks

10. AC/DC

10. AC/DC

10. Rihanna

10. Rolling Stones

When it comes to Athletes, Americans still love
Tom Brady

Tom Brady may have lost his Deflategate battle to Roger Goodell and the
NFL in court, but some Americans seem to have overlooked his alleged
transgressions. America’s favorite quarterback dominates his fellow
athletes across the most talented, best brand, most respected and
athlete they would most like to trade lives with dimensions, coming in
at #2, #2, #4 and #1 respectively. Although with enough Americans losing
respect for Brady and considering him the #4 most overpaid athlete, his
longtime nemesis Eli Manning (#1 most respected athlete) captures the
title for the most overall valued athlete by Americans.

Conspicuously absent? Female athletes – none of whom made the 2016 list
for highest-earning celebrities.

Talented

Best Brand

Trade Lives

Respect the Most

1. LeBron James

1. LeBron James

1. Tom Brady

1. Eli Manning

2. Tom Brady

T2. Kobe Bryant

T2. Cristiano Ronaldo

2. Phil Mickelson

3. Tiger Woods

T2. Tom Brady

T2. Eli Manning

3. LeBron James

4. Kobe Bryant

T4. Eli Manning

4. LeBron James

4. Tom Brady

5. Eli Manning

T4. Tiger Woods

5. Phil Mickelson

5. Kobe Bryant

6. Lionel Messi

6. Phil Mickelson

6. Kobe Bryant

T6. Cam Newton

7. Cristiano Ronaldo

7. Cristiano Ronaldo

7. Jordan Spieth

T6. Roger Federer

8. Roger Federer

8. Roger Federer

T8. Roger Federer

8. Cristiano Ronaldo

T9. Cam Newton

9. Cam Newton

T8. Tiger Woods

9. Jordan Spieth

T9. Phil Mickelson

10. Lionel Messi

10. Floyd Mayweather

10. Tiger Woods

Americans want to trade lives with the actors
and actresses they find most attractive

There seems to be a strong correlation between Americans wanting to
trade lives with the actors and actresses they find most attractive.
Jennifer Lawrence, Sofia Vergara, Brad Pitt, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
and Johnny Depp round out the top 5 actors/actresses that Americans find
the most attractive. This same group also tops the list for actors or
actresses that Americans would most like to trade lives with.

Looking for the best social media accounts to follow (or maybe some
workout tips)? Americans recommend following Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Most Attractive

Trade lives with

Best Social Media

Most likely to be remembered in 100 years

1. Jennifer Lawrence

1. Jennifer Lawrence

1. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

1. Tom Cruise

2. Sofía Vergara

2. Sofía Vergara

2. Jennifer Lawrence

T2. Brad Pitt

3. Brad Pitt

T3. Brad Pitt

3. Brad Pitt

T2. Johnny Depp

4. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

T3. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

4. Sofía Vergara

4. Jackie Chan

5. Johnny Depp

5. Johnny Depp

5. Melissa McCarthy

T5. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

6. Robert Downey Jr.

6. Melissa McCarthy

6. Matt Damon

T5. Robert Downey Jr.

7. Matt Damon

7. Matt Damon

7. Robert Downey Jr.

7. Matt Damon

8. Ben Affleck

8. Robert Downey Jr.

8. Ben Affleck

8. Jennifer Lawrence

9. Melissa McCarthy

9. Tom Cruise

9. Johnny Depp

T9. Ben Affleck

10. Vin Diesel

10. Ben Affleck

10. Vin Diesel

T9. Vin Diesel

Kim Kardashian remains one of the most
polarizing figures on the list

While Kim Kardashian may have only clocked in at #42 on Forbes
Highest-Paid Celebrities list, she is one of the most polarizing
personalities included on Forbes’ list. When compared to other
celebrities on the list in the media personality category, Americans
ranked Kim as following: #1 for social media, #4 most attractive, #4
best brand, and #8 most business savvy. On the flipside, Kim was ranked
as the #1 most overpaid and the #1 least respected when compared to
fellow media personalities.

Kim’s business savviness shines on mobile. Around one-third of the
Forbes celebrities have apps, but most apps don’t even generate enough
data to track monthly users. Kim’s trio of apps represent not only some
of the most popular celebrity-produced apps, but some of the most
popular apps in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores overall.
According to SurveyMonkey
Intelligence, Kim’s apps (KIMOJI, Kim Kardashian West Official App
and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood) boast 1,100,000 combined monthly active
users. Kim Kardashian Hollywood alone has 951,000 monthly active users.
That’s about the same amount of monthly active users as popular team
communication platform Slack.

Celebrity (Forbes Rank)					App Name					Monthly Active Users (MAU)
1. Taylor Swift					Taylor Swift					401,439
4. Cristiano Ronaldo					Cristiano Ronaldo: SuperStar Skater					13,610
13. Ellen DeGeneres					HeadsUp					1,032,065
26. Justin Bieber					Shots App					243,193
36. Jay Z					Tidal					847,460
42. Kim Kardashian					Kim Kardashian Hollywood					951,845
63. Dr. Dre					Beats Music					236,011
99. Britney Spears					Britney Spears: American Dream					389,176

Other key findings from SurveyMonkey’s evaluation of the 2016 Forbes
World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities list can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/rankings/the-worlds-highest-paid-celebrities/

Methods Statement

The 2016 Celebrity Measures are based on survey responses from a sample
of 2,500 adults in the United States across 5 surveys. Each survey was
administered on the SurveyMonkey platform with respondents from
Audience, SurveyMonkey’s online panel. Celebrities in the 2016 listing
of the Forbes Celebrity 100 were compared by respondents on a set of 12
metrics across five surveys conducted July 20 – 25.

Mobile app data was collected using SurveyMonkey Intelligence, a mobile
app insights platform. Data is based on estimates pulled as of July 17.

About SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is the world’s leading online survey platform, with more
than 3 million survey responses every day. SurveyMonkey has
revolutionized the way people give and take feedback, making it
accessible, easy and affordable for everyone. The company was founded in
1999 with a focus on helping people make better decisions, and has built
technology based on over 15 years of experience in survey methodology
and web development. Customers include 99% of the Fortune 500, academic
institutions, organizations and neighborhood soccer leagues everywhere.
The company has over 600 employees throughout North America, Europe, and
Asia Pacific, with headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. For more information,
visit www.surveymonkey.com.

© 2016 SurveyMonkey. SurveyMonkey and the SurveyMonkey logo are
trademarks of SurveyMonkey Inc. and its affiliates. Other company and
product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

SutherlandGold for SurveyMonkey
Tatiana De Almeida, 415-275-6251
talmeida@sutherlandgold.com