Producer Files $6 Million Lawsuit Against ‘American Idol’ Winner

Rolling Stone

“American Idol” Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips is being sued by 19 Entertainment, the show’s production company, for failing to pay management fees. 19 Entertainment claims that Phillips stopped paying his management fees and now owes approximately $1 million. 

In the suit filed in New York City today (June 2), the company also states that the ‘Idol’ winner should pay an additional $5 million for “repudiating and breaching various agreements.” According to the court documents obtained by TMZ, Phillips stopped paying managerial fees in 2015 when he filed a complaint stating that his contract with the company violated California law. 

Rolling Stone detailed Phillips’ 2015 legal filing saying “the company has ‘manipulated’ him into making appearances, forcing him to perform for free at a concert for one of Idol’s sponsors, and that he found out the title of his last album, 2014’s Behind the Light, along with the general public.”

The filing was made after Phillips mad an unsuccessful attempt to renegotiate his contract with 19. Phillips asked the judge to rule that 19 Entertainment broke the Talent Agencies Act, declare his contract illegal and pay Phillips any earnings he could have made under a legal contract.  

Howard King, attorney for Phillips, issued a statement late Thursday claiming that “19’s new complaint is a blatant attempt to evade California’s jurisdiction and thwart its fundamental public policies crafted to protect artists. 19 cannot murder its parents, then seek mercy as an orphan.”

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