Britney to get $15m to become ‘X Factor’ judge

Britney Spears has reached an agreement to serve as a judge on Simon Cowell’s The X Factor — and the pay is really something to sing about.

The Womanizer singer will collect $15 million overall for the gig — about $13m to judge music-industry aspirants alongside Cowell and record executive LA Reid, and the rest as a bonus for performing on the show.

The deal has been agreed upon, but has not yet been signed. Spears is still under a conservatorship following her mid-2000s breakdown, with her father, Jamie Spears, serving as her guardian.

Spears had earlier rejected a $10m offer to judge on the show, and instead was seeking $20m for the gig.

Though Spears won’t be getting exactly what she was hoping for, the singer’s payday does compare favourably to her soon-to-be peers in the music-competition arena: Christina Aguilera is raking in upwards of $10m to mentor the current second season of NBC’s The Voice. And Spears’ X Factor predecessor, Paula Abdul received a relatively paltry $2.5m to judge on the first season.

Following its first season, which failed by a long shot to perform up to Cowell’s predictions, The X Factor went into full meltdown, firing judges Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, and host Steve Jones. Cowell has said the second season will feature two judges, preferably a male and a female.