On Thursday, October 8, 2026, Spotify announced a new multiyear licensing agreement for "The Joe Rogan Experience." According to the Wall Street Journal, the new deal carries terms similar to Rogan's previous agreement, which was worth up to $250 million. Spotify has not disclosed an exact dollar figure or the duration of the new contract.

Assuming the new agreement delivers another $250 million, Rogan's three Spotify contracts will have a combined potential value of $700 million. That's $200 million from his original 2020 agreement, up to $250 million from his 2024 renewal, and another potential $250 million from the deal announced today. And perhaps the most remarkable part? After negotiating all three agreements, Joe Rogan still owns his podcast.

Joe Rogan Spotify Deal (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

2020: The First $200 Million Deal

To appreciate how extraordinary this run has been, let's go back to May 19, 2020. That's when Spotify announced that it had secured exclusive rights to "The Joe Rogan Experience," a podcast Rogan had launched in December 2009 with comedian Brian Redban.

At the time, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that the agreement was worth more than $100 million. It was a staggering figure for a podcast, but in our original coverage, we questioned whether $100 million was actually enough.

Here's why: Before Spotify came along, Rogan was already generating an estimated $20 million to $30 million annually through podcast sponsorships and YouTube revenue. If he was making that kind of money independently, why would he surrender exclusive distribution rights for a three-year contract worth just $100 million? That would amount to $33 million per year, barely more than he was already earning.

We speculated that Spotify might have offered him $100 million upfront, potentially with additional annual compensation from advertising and other incentives. We didn't have inside knowledge of the contract, but the publicly reported figure simply didn't seem to make sense.

In February 2022, we learned that our suspicions were justified. The New York Times reported that Rogan's actual Spotify contract was worth at least $200 million over three and a half years, with the possibility of additional compensation.

In other words, the original deal was worth more than twice what most people initially believed. As we wrote when the real numbers emerged, Rogan was earning the kind of money normally associated with the highest-paid professional athletes and broadcasting superstars like Howard Stern, whose enormous SiriusXM contracts helped establish the market for nine-figure deals with individual media personalities.

Within months of announcing the deal, Rogan also moved from California to Texas, purchasing a $14.4 million waterfront mansion in Austin. The relocation gave him considerably more space and moved his residence from a state with a top personal income tax rate of 13.3% to one with no state personal income tax.

2024: Another $250 Million

Fast-forward to February 2, 2024. With his original agreement expiring, Spotify and Rogan announced a new multiyear partnership worth up to $250 million. The new contract pushed the potential combined value of his first two Spotify deals to $450 million.

But the second agreement came with an interesting twist. Spotify no longer required "The Joe Rogan Experience" to be exclusive to its platform. Rogan could once again distribute his show through YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other services, while Spotify retained licensing and advertising sales rights.

The new arrangement included a significant upfront payment, a minimum overall guarantee, and a share of advertising revenue generated across platforms. Instead of using Rogan exclusively to attract subscribers, Spotify could make money selling advertising to his enormous audience wherever those listeners happened to consume the show.

To appreciate the size of Rogan's second agreement, consider that Spotify had signed "Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper to a three-year, $60 million contract in 2021. That was considered an enormous deal at the time. Rogan's 2024 agreement carried a potential value more than four times as large.

When we covered the second agreement in February 2024, our headline highlighted the fact that Rogan's total Spotify earnings could reach $450 million. We also pointed out that he would still own his show after the contract expired, leaving him positioned to negotiate yet another enormous payday. That prediction has now come true.

2026: A Third Deal Worth Another Potential $250 Million

Spotify's latest agreement continues the arrangement established in 2024. "The Joe Rogan Experience" will remain available on Spotify and competing platforms, with Spotify continuing to handle licensing and advertising sales.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the financial terms are similar to the previous contract, which carried an estimated $250 million earnout. If the new agreement reaches that same level, it will bring Rogan's combined Spotify contract value to $700 million. And there's a very good reason Spotify keeps writing these enormous checks: Rogan's audience is significantly larger than it was when the companies first partnered.

According to Edison Research, "The Joe Rogan Experience" reached 6.6 million Americans at the beginning of 2020. By the second quarter of 2026, that audience had grown to 28.4 million Americans, more than four times its original size. The podcast also has more than 18 million followers on Spotify and more than 21 million subscribers on YouTube. Edison Research has ranked it as America's most-listened-to podcast since the company began tracking the category in 2019.

Rogan's guest list helps explain the show's extraordinary reach. Over the years, he has hosted everyone from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, along with internet personalities like MrBeast. These conversations routinely last several hours and reach audiences far beyond the traditional worlds of comedy and mixed martial arts.

Rogan's earning power extends well beyond the Spotify agreements. In July 2026, Forbes ranked him as the world's highest-paid podcaster, calculating $82 million in pretax podcast-related earnings for the 12 months ending in June 2026. That figure does not include all the money he generates through stand-up comedy, his longtime UFC commentary career alongside Dana White, and his Austin comedy club, Comedy Mothership.

Announcing the latest renewal, Rogan praised the relationship with Spotify, saying he was extremely happy to continue working with the company for years to come. Spotify's head of content partnerships, Jordan Newman, described Rogan's show as an enduring success that continues to attract a massive global audience.

Three Deals. $700 Million. And He Still Owns The Show.

There is one important distinction in that $700 million figure. Rogan's original contract was worth at least $200 million, while his second agreement carried a potential value of $250 million that included advertising-related compensation. The newest agreement's exact value remains undisclosed, so the $700 million total assumes the third contract ultimately produces earnings comparable to the second.

Even with that distinction, the scale of Rogan's Spotify business is extraordinary. He has transformed a podcast that began as two comedians talking into one of the most financially valuable properties in entertainment, repeatedly negotiating massive licensing agreements without giving up ownership of the underlying show.

Consider how unusual that is. When Spotify acquired Bill Simmons' sports-media company, The Ringer, in 2020, it paid a nine-figure sum to own the business. With Rogan, Spotify has committed hundreds of millions of dollars simply for the right to distribute and monetize content that he continues to own.

For all of Rogan's success in television, stand-up, and UFC broadcasting, none of those careers has come close to the financial rewards of "The Joe Rogan Experience." What began as a free internet talk show in 2009 has now generated three consecutive blockbuster Spotify agreements with a combined potential value of $700 million. And when this latest agreement eventually expires, Rogan will still own the show that made it all possible.

Read more: Joe Rogan Just Signed A New Spotify Deal That Will Bring His Total Earnings To $700 Million

The following day, ImClone announced devastating news about its experimental cancer drug, sending the company's stock price plunging. By selling when she did, Martha avoided a loss of exactly $45,673.

What followed was one of the most extraordinary financial disasters in celebrity history. The stock trade triggered a federal investigation, a criminal conviction, five months in prison, and a spectacular decline in the value of the business empire that had made Stewart America's first self-made female billionaire.

Nearly 25 years later, Martha Stewart has put an astonishing price tag on the ordeal: $1 billion. And in a remarkable full-circle twist, she brought up that figure while explaining why she doesn't own a private jet today.

Mid-Life Millionaires -Martha Stewart / Denis Contreras/Getty Images

Why Martha Stewart Doesn't Own A Private Jet

During an appearance on MasterClass founder David Rogier's new podcast, "Other People's Business," Stewart was discussing modern celebrity entrepreneurs, including Kim Kardashian. Martha expressed admiration for the Kardashian family's business success, revealing that Kim has sought her advice and observing that the reality star now travels aboard a Gulfstream G5 private jet.

Rogier asked Stewart why she didn't have a private jet of her own. Her answer immediately took the conversation back to the scandal that nearly destroyed her career.

"Because I fell in a hole," Stewart replied. "I lost about a billion dollars in my legal problems. The lawyers took me to the cleaners, and they were horrible."

Stewart, now 85, said she plans to explore the experience further in her forthcoming autobiography. She also made clear that she has recovered financially and is doing well today, telling Rogier, "But I'm back. I mean, I'm pretty good."

The billion-dollar figure is an extraordinary acknowledgment of how much Stewart believes the legal ordeal ultimately cost her. And to understand how she arrived at such an enormous number, it's worth revisiting the events that unfolded after that fateful December afternoon.

Here is the full interview, which also explores Stewart's extraordinary career earnings and the business empire she created:

The $45,673 Stock Trade That Started Everything

The story begins with ImClone Systems, a biotechnology company run by Samuel Waksal, a friend of Martha Stewart. In December 2001, ImClone was awaiting a critical decision from the Food and Drug Administration concerning Erbitux, an experimental cancer treatment.

On December 27, Waksal and members of his family attempted to sell their ImClone shares. Stewart's Merrill Lynch broker, Peter Bacanovic, learned about those sales and contacted Martha's office while she was traveling to Mexico. Stewart subsequently spoke with Bacanovic's assistant, Douglas Faneuil, who told her that Waksal was trying to sell his shares.

Stewart instructed Faneuil to sell all 3,928 of her ImClone shares. She also tried to reach Waksal to find out what was happening with the company. The next day, the FDA announced that it had refused to review ImClone's application for Erbitux, and the stock fell sharply.

Federal regulators subsequently determined that Stewart's timely sale had allowed her to avoid a loss of $45,673. For a woman whose personal fortune had already crossed $1 billion, it was a relatively insignificant sum.

But the trade itself was only the beginning of her troubles. During the subsequent investigation, Stewart and Bacanovic maintained that they had a preexisting agreement to sell her shares if ImClone fell below $60. Prosecutors challenged that explanation and accused the pair of lying to investigators.

In March 2004, Stewart was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators. Importantly, she was never criminally convicted of insider trading. It was her conduct during the investigation, rather than an insider-trading conviction, that sent her to prison.

She was sentenced to five months in federal prison, followed by five months of home confinement and two years of supervised release. She entered federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, in October 2004 and was released in March 2005.

In 2006, Stewart also resolved the SEC's separate civil insider-trading case, agreeing to pay approximately $195,000 in disgorgement, interest, and penalties without admitting or denying the allegations. She also accepted a five-year prohibition on serving as a director of a public company.

The direct financial penalties were a tiny fraction of the amount Stewart now says the entire ordeal cost her. The far greater damage came from what happened to the company she had spent decades building.

Before The Scandal, Martha Stewart Was A Billionaire

To appreciate the size of Stewart's financial losses, it's worth remembering just how successful her business had become before ImClone.

Stewart began her professional career as a model before working as a stockbroker on Wall Street. She later built a catering business out of her Connecticut farmhouse, published the bestselling 1982 book "Entertaining," and transformed her expertise in cooking, gardening, decorating, and entertaining into an enormously successful magazine and television franchise. Her frequent television appearances, including on Oprah Winfrey's program, helped introduce her to an even larger national audience.

In 1997, she consolidated her publishing, television, and merchandising interests into Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, or MSLO. Two years later, on October 19, 1999, she took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares were priced at $18 in the IPO, opened at $37.25, briefly traded as high as $52, and closed the first trading day at $35.56. At that price, MSLO had a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion.

Martha personally controlled more than 34 million shares, giving her an ownership stake worth $1.2 billion at the end of that first day. The IPO made her America's first self-made female billionaire, an extraordinary achievement for someone who had started her business in a farmhouse kitchen.

And the operation behind that valuation was a formidable money-making machine. One of its most successful components was a retail licensing arrangement that generated tens of millions of dollars in annual royalties.

The $65 Million-A-Year Kmart Deal

One of Stewart's greatest business triumphs was her partnership with Kmart. Long before celebrity entrepreneurs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba launched their own lifestyle and consumer-product empires, Martha had developed an entire universe of merchandise bearing her name.

Through the Martha Stewart Everyday collection, Kmart sold everything from sheets, towels, and cookware to furniture, gardening supplies, and Christmas decorations. At its peak, according to Stewart's new interview, the partnership generated nearly $2 billion in annual merchandise sales.

Even more impressively, Stewart said the arrangement generated as much as $65 million annually in royalties. Those royalties flowed through Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia under its licensing agreement with the retailer. The company's SEC filings confirm a $65 million guaranteed royalty payment under the Kmart agreement.

It was one of the great celebrity merchandising deals of its era. The revenue helped fuel Stewart's expansion into magazines, television, publishing, and other ventures, while giving her the financial resources to consolidate her businesses into a publicly traded company.

In many ways, Martha had developed the template that modern celebrity entrepreneurs would eventually follow. She wasn't simply endorsing other companies' products. She had created an entire commercial ecosystem around her personal brand, using the same name and expertise to generate revenue through television, publishing, and merchandise.

That business model also created a tremendous vulnerability. When Martha's personal reputation came under attack, the value of the company bearing her name was exposed to the fallout.

How Did Martha Stewart Lose $1 Billion?

Some of the financial devastation was visible almost immediately after the ImClone investigation became public.

MSLO's share price had already retreated substantially from its post-IPO highs, but the scandal compounded the company's troubles. Shares that had traded in the mid-$30s eventually sank into single digits. Contemporary reporting documented hundreds of millions of dollars disappearing from the value of Stewart's personal company holdings, including a decline of $330 million associated with the controversy.

Stewart relinquished her positions as chairwoman and CEO following her indictment, although she remained the company's largest shareholder. The investigation dominated headlines, her television career was disrupted, and the business faced years of uncertainty about whether its founder would be able to continue serving as the public face of the brand.

There was one especially bizarre development. While Stewart was actually serving her prison sentence, MSLO shares staged an enormous rally. The rebound briefly restored the value of her holdings to billionaire territory. But those gains did not last, and the company's longer-term decline continued.

By 2015, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was a shadow of the company that had once commanded a valuation exceeding $2 billion. That June, Sequential Brands Group announced it would acquire MSLO in a cash-and-stock transaction worth $353 million.

As we wrote when the sale was announced, selling a business for $353 million would ordinarily qualify as an enormous success. But for a company that had once been valued above $2 billion, it represented a dramatic fall from its glory days.

Stewart did not personally receive the full $353 million, which represented the value of the entire business. She received consideration for her shares, maintained an ongoing relationship with the Martha Stewart brand, and continued developing new ventures.

Four years later, Sequential sold the Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse brands to Marquee Brands for $175 million, with the possibility of another $40 million in additional payments. Martha remained the defining public personality associated with the brand, but the intellectual property was now controlled by another company.

So where does her new $1 billion figure come from? Stewart didn't provide a detailed breakdown. The decline in her company holdings accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars, while legal expenses, damaged business relationships, interrupted commercial opportunities, and the long-term consequences of the scandal could have contributed to the broader financial fallout she describes.

Stewart clearly believes the ultimate damage was vastly greater than the publicly documented legal settlements or the initial stock-market decline. Her forthcoming autobiography may provide a fuller accounting of how she arrived at the billion-dollar figure.

A $400 Million Comeback

Despite the extraordinary financial and personal setbacks, Stewart managed something that few public figures could have accomplished: she rebuilt her career and remained culturally relevant for decades after the scandal.

She returned to television shortly after her release from prison, continuing to publish books and rebuild commercial relationships with advertisers and retailers. In 2005, she even starred in "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," a spinoff of the reality franchise associated with Donald Trump.

Her unexpected friendship with Snoop Dogg eventually developed into the VH1 series "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party," introducing Stewart to a new generation of fans who knew her as much for her sense of humor as for her recipes. Their partnership led to numerous television appearances, commercials, and other collaborations, helping reinvent her public image.

At 81, she became the oldest cover model in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue history. She also published her 100th book, opened a restaurant in Las Vegas, launched additional consumer businesses, and became the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary "Martha."

Today, Martha Stewart has a net worth of $400 million. Her real estate holdings include her sprawling Bedford estate in New York, the historic Skylands property in Maine, and a $12.3 million Manhattan duplex purchased with her daughter Alexis in 2024.

She may no longer be a billionaire, but she has built a second act that would be an extraordinary lifetime accomplishment for almost anyone else. And at 85, she continues to develop new businesses, publish books, and expand a brand that has already endured for more than four decades.

Still, the contrast is difficult to ignore. In December 2001, Martha Stewart was traveling aboard a private jet when she made a stock trade that saved her $45,673. Nearly a quarter-century later, she says the consequences of that trade cost her $1 billion and help explain why she doesn't own a private jet today.

It's one of the strangest financial round trips in American business history. And for Martha Stewart, it's apparently still a painful one.

Read more: In December 2001, Martha Stewart Sold A Stock While Flying On Her Private Jet. That Trade Saved Her $45,673… And Cost Her $1 Billion

And if they find a buyer, they won't exactly be saying goodbye to Malibu. McEnroe and Smyth own another, smaller home nearby that they plan to keep.

A $35 Million House On The Sand

Built in the mid-1990s, the roughly 6,500-square-foot house sits on 0.3 acre directly along the beach in Paradise Cove. The residence has four bedrooms and was designed to take maximum advantage of its oceanfront location.

The main level includes a large living room opening onto an oceanfront deck, along with a dining area overlooking the Pacific. A dramatic two-story fireplace anchors the interior, while the house also includes an elevator and dumbwaiter connecting the different levels.

On the lower level, there's a wet bar and sliding glass doors leading to a covered deck with a private Jacuzzi. Outside, the landscaped front yard includes a waterfall and a tiki hut-style pavilion that McEnroe and Smyth have used as a gym and yoga space.

Here is a video tour of the property from when the home was listed in August 2015:

Paradise Cove's "Billionaires' Bluff"

Location is a major part of the home's $35 million asking price. Paradise Cove has become one of the most valuable stretches of residential real estate in Malibu, and the bluff above the beach is sometimes referred to by local real estate agents as "Billionaires' Bluff." The enclave has twice produced the most expensive residential sale in California history.

The roster of nearby homeowners certainly lives up to the nickname. Beyoncé and Jay-Z own a home in the area, as do billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Laurene Powell Jobs.

McEnroe's property is particularly appealing because it sits down on the sand rather than on the bluff above it, giving the home immediate access to the beach.

McEnroe Fell In Love With Malibu In The 1970s

McEnroe's connection to Malibu dates back decades. He told the Wall Street Journal that he first fell in love with the area in the late 1970s while dating a woman from Beverly Hills, and despite being one of New York City's most famous lifelong residents, he continued returning to Southern California and eventually began buying property there.

McEnroe now lives primarily on Manhattan's Upper West Side and has described New York City and Malibu as his two favorite places in the world. The two locations offer almost opposite experiences, which appears to be exactly the appeal.

For a man who built his reputation as one of the most intense athletes in sports history, the Malibu house has served a much calmer purpose. McEnroe said living on the beach has helped him relax, something he joked he has gotten better at with age.

Not bad for the man whose most famous phrase remains, "You cannot be serious!"

John And Patty's Malibu Real Estate Portfolio

The Paradise Cove property is only one chapter in McEnroe and Smyth's long history of Malibu real estate. McEnroe previously owned a home on Carbon Beach that had belonged to legendary "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, and he also owned a beachfront property inside the gated Malibu Colony for decades.

McEnroe originally acquired the Malibu Colony house while married to actress Tatum O'Neal. He and Smyth later extensively renovated the property before selling it in an off-market deal in 2022 for $29 million.

Their Paradise Cove buying spree began in 2013, when the couple paid $3.35 million for a ranch-style house on 1.5 acres. Two years later, they spent $21 million on the larger beachfront property that is now on the market for $35 million.

McEnroe says they intend to keep the smaller house, meaning a sale won't end the couple's long-running connection to Malibu.

McEnroe And Smyth's $100 Million Fortune

McEnroe and Smyth have a combined net worth of $100 million, built across tennis, music, endorsements, broadcasting, art, and real estate.

McEnroe earned more than $12.5 million in official tournament prize money during a career that included seven Grand Slam singles championships, but his commercial earnings went far beyond his tournament winnings. His endorsement income was already estimated at $100 million by the early 2000s, and he later built a highly successful second career as a television commentator at Wimbledon, the US Open, and other major tournaments.

Smyth built her own successful music career as the lead singer of Scandal, whose biggest hits included "Goodbye to You" and "The Warrior." As a solo artist, she scored one of the biggest hits of the early 1990s with her Don Henley duet "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough."

Today, McEnroe and Smyth spend most of their time in New York, which makes owning multiple multimillion-dollar houses in Malibu a little less necessary. For $35 million, one buyer now has the chance to take the larger one off their hands.

Read more: John McEnroe and Patty Smyth List One Of Their Malibu Mansions For $35 Million

The enormous Mediterranean Revival compound sits on 2.76 acres, contains more than 16,000 square feet of living space and comes with everything from a wine cellar and guesthouse to a clay tennis court overlooking Los Angeles.

Under normal circumstances, that would be the whole story: a celebrity couple who bought an extraordinary Beverly Hills property 16 years ago is testing the upper reaches of today's luxury market.

These are not normal circumstances.

The listing comes as another part of Dr. Phil's empire is experiencing a much less pleasant financial event. Merit Street Media, the television network McGraw launched after ending his long-running daytime show, is now being dismantled in Chapter 7 bankruptcy following a spectacular collapse, a battle with creditors and a series of unusually harsh findings from a federal bankruptcy judge.

To be clear, Dr. Phil himself has not filed for bankruptcy, and there is no evidence that the Beverly Hills home is being sold because of Merit Street's financial problems. But the timing makes for a striking contrast.

Dr. Phil's $67.5 Million Beverly Hills Estate

Phil and Robin bought the property in 2010 for $29.8 million. Located in the Beverly Hills Post Office area, the estate sits on 2.76 acres in lower Benedict Canyon and was developed into a sprawling private compound.

The main residence, designed by architect Kevin Clark and completed in 2011, contains 16,079 square feet of living space with eight bedrooms and more than 10 bathrooms. There is also a separate guesthouse and dedicated staff accommodations.

(via the MLS)

Inside, the mansion leans heavily into old-school Beverly Hills grandeur, with high ceilings, elaborate stonework, exposed beams, multiple fireplaces, chandeliers and oversized formal entertaining rooms. The kitchen is equipped with Wolf and Miele appliances and includes a butler's pantry and informal dining area, while an elaborate wine cellar is reached by a brick-lined staircase.

The primary suite has its own sitting area, separate bathrooms and massive wardrobe spaces. Outside, there's a resort-style swimming pool, extensive landscaping and panoramic city and mountain views, along with a clay tennis court, entertainment pavilion, four-car garage and substantial motor court.

At $67.5 million, the asking price works out to $4,198 per square foot. Billy Dolan of Carolwood Estates holds the listing.

The McGraws have been active in Southern California luxury real estate for decades. Before moving to Davies Drive, they owned another Mediterranean villa in Beverly Hills that they purchased in 2002 for $7.5 million and sold in 2011 for $12 million.

In 2011, Phil and Robin also paid $6.58 million for an 11,000-square-foot mansion in Calabasas. The McGraw family previously owned another Beverly Crest home that became an internet sensation thanks to its unusual interior design, including black walls, strange animal sculptures, a vine-inspired staircase and an anti-gun art installation incorporating firearms. That home, which was used by their son Jordan McGraw, sold for $5.75 million in 2020.

A McGraw family trust also paid $10 million for another Beverly Hills-area home in 2020 that has been associated with Jordan and his wife, Morgan Stewart. More recently, Phil and Robin established a significant presence in Texas, where McGraw based his newest television venture.

And that's where this real estate story gets considerably more interesting.

Dr. Phil Tried To Build A New Television Empire

For decades, Dr. Phil's television business was an incredible money machine. After becoming famous through appearances on Oprah Winfrey's show, McGraw launched "Dr. Phil" in 2002. It became one of the most successful syndicated talk shows in television history and ran for 21 seasons.

More importantly from a financial perspective, McGraw wasn't simply collecting a host's salary. He controlled his show's content and participated heavily in the economics of the program, helping make him one of the highest-paid personalities in television.

At his peak, Dr. Phil was earning extraordinary amounts of money. He made $88 million in 2016, $79 million in 2017 and $95 million between June 2018 and June 2019.

When "Dr. Phil" ended its original run in 2023, McGraw had no intention of quietly retiring. Instead, he attempted something much more ambitious.

In April 2024, McGraw launched Merit Street Media, a new television network based in Texas and created in partnership with Trinity Broadcasting Network. The centerpiece was his new nightly program, "Dr. Phil Primetime," but the plan stretched far beyond a single show.

Merit Street intended to offer news, true crime, entertainment and sports programming and promoted itself as a national television platform capable of reaching tens of millions of homes. McGraw was effectively attempting to go from owning a hugely successful television show to controlling a much broader media network.

It didn't work.

Merit Street Filed For Bankruptcy Just 15 Months After Launching

On July 2, 2025, Merit Street Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas, listing both assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million. At the same time, Merit Street sued Trinity Broadcasting Network, accusing its business partner of failing to deliver promised national distribution and other commitments.

Trinity strongly disputed Merit Street's version of events and made serious allegations of its own against McGraw and his companies. The two sides quickly became locked in a bitter legal battle over who was responsible for the network's collapse.

Then there was Professional Bull Riders.

Merit Street had struck a major agreement to carry PBR events, but that relationship also fell apart. PBR alleged that Merit Street stopped making payments required under its media-rights agreement and asserted a staggering $181 million claim against the company.

McGraw's side and Merit Street contested significant portions of the accusations made against them. But by the time the company entered bankruptcy, the grand plan of building a new national television network was already falling apart, and what began as a Chapter 11 case soon became something considerably uglier.

A Judge Took The Bankruptcy Away From Dr. Phil's Team

Chapter 11 generally allows a struggling company to remain in control while it restructures debts, sells assets or attempts to reorganize. That's not how Merit Street's case ended.

After months of fighting among Merit Street, Trinity, PBR and other parties, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Everett held hearings and a trial over whether Merit Street's existing management should remain in charge. The judge ultimately identified four independent grounds supporting conversion of the case into Chapter 7.

Everett found that the estate was experiencing substantial or continuing losses and that Merit Street's chief restructuring officer, Gary Broadbent, was not sufficiently neutral and was conflicted in favor of McGraw. The judge also found that Broadbent had failed in his duty of candor to the court.

Most strikingly, the judge found that McGraw had destroyed relevant evidence. The court subsequently expanded that finding into a determination of bad-faith conduct in the prosecution of the bankruptcy case by McGraw acting on Merit Street's behalf.

On November 18, 2025, Merit Street was officially converted from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 liquidation. Instead of Merit Street's existing leadership controlling an attempted restructuring, an independent Chapter 7 trustee took control of the bankruptcy estate.

The trustee's job is to gather the company's remaining assets, investigate potential claims, sell what can be sold and distribute the proceeds to creditors. In practical terms, Merit Street isn't being reorganized into a healthier company. It's being dismantled.

Dr. Phil Has Been Fighting The Ruling

McGraw and his production company, Peteski Productions, have challenged the bankruptcy court's findings and attempted to overturn aspects of the Chapter 7 conversion. One of those efforts suffered another setback on September 28, 2026.

McGraw and Peteski had filed a separate federal court petition seeking a writ of mandamus aimed at several of Judge Everett's findings, including those concerning McGraw's conduct and the neutrality of Merit Street's restructuring officer. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay dismissed that case for lack of jurisdiction.

Exactly one week later, Dr. Phil's Beverly Hills mansion appeared on the market for $67.5 million.

There is no evidence connecting those two events. The mansion belongs to Phil and Robin, Merit Street Media is the entity in bankruptcy, and the Chapter 7 trustee is not selling the McGraws' Beverly Hills home.

Still, it's an extraordinary split-screen moment for one of the richest personalities in television history. Phil and Robin are offering one of their largest personal assets for nearly $70 million while the television company that was supposed to become Dr. Phil's next great media empire is being liquidated under the control of a bankruptcy trustee.

For someone who spent more than two decades running one of the most profitable shows in daytime television, Merit Street has turned into a remarkably expensive and messy second act.

Read more: Dr. Phil Just Listed His Beverly Hills Mansion For $67.5 Million As His Media Empire Collapses Into Chapter 7 Liquidation

And there was another complication: his contract. Horner was making somewhere in the neighborhood of £8 million to £10 million per year by the end of his tenure. Red Bull Technology's 2024 accounts showed £8.032 million of compensation for its highest-paid director, understood to be Horner, while reporting around his departure put his annual pay closer to £10 million.

More importantly, Horner later revealed that when Red Bull fired him, he still had six years remaining on his contract. So everyone naturally assumed Red Bull probably had to write an enormous check to make him go away.

But how enormous?

There were plenty of reasons we might never have learned the answer. Horner's dismissal came after an extraordinarily turbulent period. In 2024, a female Red Bull employee accused him of inappropriate behavior. Horner denied the allegations, and a grievance was dismissed following an investigation by an independent King's Counsel. An appeal was subsequently reviewed by another independent KC and was also not upheld. Red Bull never publicly said that Horner's eventual firing in July 2025 was punishment for those allegations.

Still, when a high-level executive gets fired after that kind of turmoil, all sorts of contractual possibilities come into play. If Red Bull believed it had grounds to terminate Horner for cause, perhaps it owed him very little. If it simply wanted out of a long-term contract, perhaps it owed him tens of millions.

And whatever deal ultimately ended the relationship almost certainly came with enough confidentiality language to ensure neither side would casually disclose the details. Indeed, when Horner was recently asked about his payoff, he declined to give the number. There was a very real possibility that the exact financial terms of one of the biggest management divorces in Formula One history would remain private forever.

Then came a couple of very boring-looking British corporate filings.

And buried inside them was the answer.

(Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

So How Much Did Red Bull Pay Christian Horner?

Red Bull Racing and its parent company, Red Bull Technology Limited, recently filed their financial accounts for the year ending December 31, 2025, with Britain's Companies House. Buried in Red Bull Technology's group accounts is the number everyone wanted to know: the company's highest-paid director received £66.988 million in "compensation for loss of office."

Horner isn't named next to the payment, but he was Red Bull's highest-paid director and departed during the year covered by the accounts. At current exchange rates, that £66.988 million exit payment is worth $88.5 million.

And that wasn't all he received in 2025. The accounts show another £9.029 million in remuneration and £10,000 in pension contributions for the highest-paid director.

Put it all together and Horner's total disclosed 2025 compensation comes to £76.027 million, or just over $100 million.

So the clean takeaway is this: Red Bull paid Christian Horner $88.5 million to leave the team, and $12 million in normal salary for the year, bringing his total compensation from the company during 2025 to $100 million.

Red Bull Had A Six-Year Problem

The size of the payment makes more sense when you remember what Red Bull was trying to unwind. Horner had been running Red Bull Racing for 20 years. More importantly, he says he had six years remaining on his contract.

In a recent interview, Horner said Red Bull initially told him that the team's performance had slipped and management wanted to go in a different direction. When he pressed for a more specific explanation — particularly given those six remaining years — Horner said he was eventually told the organization had become more "Christian Horner Racing" than Red Bull Racing.

Whether or not Horner agrees with that assessment, Red Bull had every right to decide it wanted someone else running the team. The expensive part was getting rid of the guy who already had the job.

Imagine for a moment that Horner's future compensation would have remained near £10 million per year. Six additional years could have represented another £60 million in salary before even considering bonuses or other contractual benefits. Suddenly, a £66.988 million settlement doesn't look like a random number. It looks like the price of tearing up a very valuable long-term contract.

One Of The Most Lucrative Firings In Sports History

Red Bull announced Horner's removal on July 9, 2025, days after the British Grand Prix. The company did not initially terminate his directorships immediately. Companies House records show that his Red Bull Racing directorship formally ended in August, while Red Bull and Horner ultimately announced in September that they had reached an agreement formally ending their relationship.

At the time, reports pegged his settlement at £50 million, £52 million, £60 million and eventually as high as £80 million. Horner wasn't particularly interested in correcting anyone.

Asked about the payoff recently, he suggested the sheer size of it demonstrated that Red Bull hadn't concluded he had committed some offense requiring dismissal without compensation. His interpretation was much simpler: they didn't want him running the team anymore, and they were willing to pay a fortune to make that happen.

Now the accounts give us our first hard look at that fortune. The £66.988 million loss-of-office figure alone is equivalent to more than eight years of Horner's £8.032 million 2024 compensation.

Horner's wealth also sits alongside another very public fortune. Since 2015, he has been married to Geri Halliwell, better known as Ginger Spice from the Spice Girls. Halliwell built a separate $40 million net worth of her own through music, touring, endorsements and other ventures.

It also represents one of the stranger financial realities of professional sports. Christian Horner spent two decades building Red Bull Racing into one of the most successful Formula One teams ever created. He helped oversee championship eras with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. He became one of the most recognizable executives in motorsports and one half of a bitter modern F1 management rivalry with Toto Wolff.

And after all of those victories, championships and years of multimillion-dollar salaries, one of the largest paydays of his career appears to have come from Red Bull deciding that it would rather pay him nearly $90 million than have him show up for work.

Read more: Boring Corporate Filings Just Revealed The Massive Buyout Red Bull Paid To Christian Horner To Leave The F1 Team

Tim Thomas is a retired American professional hockey player who has a net worth of $20 million.

Tim Thomas followed one of the most unconventional paths to stardom in modern NHL history. A ninth-round draft pick who spent years bouncing between minor-league teams and European hockey, Thomas did not become a full-time NHL starting goaltender until his early 30s. He then developed into one of the best goalies of his generation, winning the Vezina Trophy in 2009 and 2011 and producing one of the greatest playoff performances by a goaltender in NHL history while leading the Boston Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup.

Thomas won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2011 playoffs after setting NHL records with 798 saves during the postseason and 238 saves in the Stanley Cup Final. He was 37 years old, making him the oldest player ever to win the Conn Smythe at the time. Thomas also represented the United States internationally, winning an Olympic silver medal in 2010. He retired after the 2013-14 season with 214 NHL victories and a .920 career save percentage and was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.

Career Earnings

Tim Thomas earned $23.75 million in NHL salary during his career, in addition to money earned during his years playing professionally in Europe.

Thomas spent much of his career earning modest salaries by NHL-star standards because his breakthrough came so late. His financial situation changed after he established himself as one of the league's elite goaltenders.

In April 2009, Boston signed Thomas to a four-year, $20 million contract extension. The deal called for salaries of $6 million in 2009-10, $6 million in 2010-11, $5 million in 2011-12, and $3 million in 2012-13.

Thomas collected $17 million during the first three seasons of that contract but chose not to play in 2012-13 and forfeited the final $3 million salary.

When he returned to the NHL with Florida in 2013, he signed a one-year contract with a $2.5 million base salary and another $1.25 million available through performance bonuses.

Early Life

Timothy James Thomas Jr. was born on April 15, 1974, in Flint, Michigan, and grew up in nearby Davison.

Thomas became interested in goaltending after watching Jim Craig help lead the United States to its famous gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. He began playing goalie at age six.

His path toward professional hockey was never easy. Thomas' family made significant financial sacrifices to support his youth career, and he developed largely outside the elite prospect pipeline that produces most NHL stars.

Thomas attended Davison High School before enrolling at the University of Vermont.

University of Vermont

Thomas played four seasons for the Vermont Catamounts from 1993 through 1997.

He became one of the greatest goaltenders in program history, finishing his college career with an 81-43-15 record and 3,950 saves. Thomas helped Vermont reach the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons and the Frozen Four in 1996.

He was a two-time All-ECAC selection and two-time All-American.

Despite his success, NHL teams did not view Thomas as an elite prospect. The Quebec Nordiques selected him with the 217th overall pick in the ninth round of the 1994 NHL Draft.

The Nordiques relocated to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche the following year, transferring Thomas' NHL rights to the new franchise.

Years in Europe and the Minor Leagues

Thomas graduated from Vermont in 1997 but was still years away from establishing himself in the NHL.

He began his professional career in Finland with HIFK Helsinki. Thomas immediately thrived, helping HIFK win the Finnish championship and earning recognition as the league's top goaltender.

The next several years became a complicated journey through European leagues and North American minor hockey. Thomas played in Finland, Sweden, the International Hockey League, the American Hockey League, and the ECHL.

His European teams included HIFK, AIK, Kärpät, and Jokerit.

Thomas briefly reached the NHL with Boston during the 2002-03 season but played only four games before returning to Europe. Even in his late 20s, there was little indication that he was destined to become one of the NHL's most decorated goalies.

Boston Bruins Breakthrough

Thomas finally established himself with the Boston Bruins during the 2005-06 season.

By then, he was 31 years old. Most future NHL stars have already spent years in the league by that age; Thomas was only beginning his first sustained opportunity.

He appeared in 38 games that season and gradually earned the organization's confidence. Over the next several years, his unorthodox goaltending style became one of the most recognizable in hockey.

Thomas relied less on textbook positioning than many goalies and more on reflexes, athleticism, competitiveness, and a willingness to scramble aggressively to make saves.

His style could look chaotic, but it was extraordinarily effective.

(Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

First Vezina Trophy

Thomas became an NHL star during the 2008-09 season.

He appeared in 54 games and went 36-11-7 with a 2.10 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. Thomas led the NHL in both goals-against average and save percentage as Boston finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference.

He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender and shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with Manny Fernandez.

The season transformed Thomas financially as well. Boston rewarded him with the four-year, $20 million extension that began the following season.

2010 Olympics

Thomas achieved a childhood goal when he was selected for the United States team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The American roster included Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who served as the team's starter, with Thomas providing veteran depth.

Team USA advanced to the gold-medal game before losing to Canada in overtime and taking home the silver medal.

For Thomas, simply being part of an Olympic team represented the completion of a dream inspired by watching the 1980 U.S. hockey team as a child.

Historic 2010-11 Season

Thomas produced the defining season of his career in 2010-11.

He went 35-11-9 with a 2.00 goals-against average, nine shutouts, and a .938 save percentage. His save percentage established a new NHL single-season record at the time.

Thomas won his second Vezina Trophy in three years, beating out Pekka Rinne and Roberto Luongo.

The regular season alone would have established 2010-11 as the high point of his career. What happened in the playoffs elevated it into hockey history.

2011 Stanley Cup

The Bruins entered the 2011 playoffs seeking their first Stanley Cup since 1972.

Thomas became the central figure in their run.

Boston defeated Montreal in seven games, swept Philadelphia, and defeated Tampa Bay in another seven-game series to reach the Stanley Cup Final against Vancouver.

The Canucks entered the Final with the NHL's best regular-season record and were led by stars including Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, and Roberto Luongo.

Thomas was spectacular.

Across seven games, Vancouver directed 246 shots at him. Thomas stopped 238, producing a .967 save percentage and allowing only eight goals.

The series reached Game 7 in Vancouver. Thomas stopped all 37 shots he faced as Boston won 4-0.

Thomas became the first goaltender in NHL history to record a road shutout in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

He finished the postseason 16-9 with a 1.98 goals-against average, .940 save percentage, and four shutouts.

Conn Smythe Trophy and Playoff Records

Thomas received the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

At age 37, he became the oldest player ever to win the award at that time and the first American-born goaltender to receive it.

His postseason produced records that captured the scale of his workload. Thomas made 798 saves during the playoffs, the most ever recorded in a single NHL postseason. His 238 saves against Vancouver also established a Stanley Cup Final record.

Thomas' performance placed him alongside captain Zdeno Chara and young stars including Patrice Bergeron as one of the defining figures of Boston's championship.

Final Bruins Season and Year Away

Thomas remained Boston's primary starter during the 2011-12 season and went 35-19-1 with a 2.36 goals-against average.

During that year he also attracted national attention by declining to attend the Bruins' championship visit to the White House. Thomas said his absence reflected his personal political beliefs and was not intended as a statement on behalf of the team.

After the season, Thomas announced that he would take the entire 2012-13 campaign away from hockey. He said he wanted to devote more time to "friends, family and faith" after years of single-minded focus on his career.

The decision effectively opened the starting job for Tuukka Rask.

Boston traded Thomas' contract rights to the New York Islanders in February 2013 for a conditional second-round draft pick. Thomas never played for the Islanders.

Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars

Thomas returned to hockey in 2013, signing with the Florida Panthers.

He appeared in 40 games for Florida before being traded to the Dallas Stars in March 2014 for goaltender Dan Ellis.

Thomas played eight regular-season games with Dallas, bringing his NHL career total to 426.

He finished with a 214-145-49 record, a 2.52 career goals-against average, a .920 save percentage, and 31 shutouts.

Thomas made one final international appearance for the United States at the 2014 IIHF World Championship before ending his playing career.

Retirement and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Thomas largely disappeared from public hockey life after retiring.

When he resurfaced publicly in 2019, he explained that a concussion suffered while playing for Florida in 2013 had contributed to serious neurological problems after his career. Thomas said the difficulties made it hard to process information and contributed to his decision to live privately for several years.

In December 2019, Thomas was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame alongside Gary Bettman, Brian Gionta, Krissy Wendell-Pohl, and youth hockey pioneer Neal Henderson.

His career remained remarkable not simply because of what he accomplished but when he accomplished it. Thomas did not establish himself as an NHL starter until after turning 30, then won two Vezina Trophies, a Stanley Cup, an Olympic silver medal, and the Conn Smythe Trophy before retiring.

In 2026, Thomas was again among the prominent candidates considered for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Personal Life

Thomas and his wife, Melissa, have three children.

During his playing career, the family spent significant time in New England. After retirement, Thomas lived a much more secluded life away from professional hockey.

He has remained connected to Vermont, where his college career helped turn him into one of the greatest players in University of Vermont hockey history. Thomas has also participated in charitable efforts in the state, including disaster-recovery work following severe flooding.

Read more: Tim Thomas Net Worth

Manny Machado is an American professional baseball player who has a net worth of $100 million.

Manny Machado has been one of Major League Baseball's premier third basemen for more than a decade, combining power, durability, and elite defense with some of the largest contracts in professional sports history. After the Baltimore Orioles selected him third overall in the 2010 MLB Draft, Machado reached the majors at age 20 and quickly developed into an All-Star and Gold Glove winner. Baltimore traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2018 season, and he helped the Dodgers reach the World Series before entering free agency.

In February 2019, Machado signed a 10-year, $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres, which at the time was the largest free-agent contract in North American sports history. Four years later, San Diego replaced the remaining years of that agreement with an 11-year, $350 million contract running through 2033. By the end of the 2026 season, Machado had earned more than $218 million in Major League salary, in addition to his original $5.25 million draft signing bonus and endorsement income. On the field, he has been a seven-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove winner, Platinum Glove winner, and three-time Silver Slugger while surpassing 2,000 career hits and approaching 400 home runs.

$350 Million Padres Contract

Machado has signed two separate $300+ million contracts with the Padres, although the agreements should not be added together as though San Diego guaranteed him $650 million.

His first deal came in February 2019, when he signed a 10-year, $300 million free-agent contract. The agreement included a $20 million signing bonus and gave Machado the ability to opt out after the 2023 season.

At the time, the $300 million guarantee was the largest free-agent contract in the history of North American professional sports. It surpassed the 10-year, $275 million contract Alex Rodriguez had signed with the New York Yankees in 2007. Machado's record lasted only briefly before Bryce Harper signed a 13-year, $330 million deal with Philadelphia.

By early 2023, Machado had six years and $180 million remaining on his original Padres contract. Because he could opt out after the season, he told San Diego he intended to test free agency unless the team signed him to a new deal.

The Padres responded with another blockbuster.

In February 2023, Machado signed a new 11-year, $350 million agreement that replaced the remaining portion of his original contract and keeps him in San Diego through 2033.

The contract included a $45 million signing bonus, a full no-trade clause, and no opt-out provisions. Machado received base salaries of $13 million in each of the first three seasons, followed by $21 million in 2026 and $35 million per season from 2027 through 2033.

When signed, the $350 million deal ranked behind only the contracts of Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and Aaron Judge among the largest guaranteed contracts in baseball history.

Career Earnings

By the end of the 2026 season, Machado had earned more than $218 million in Major League Baseball salary.

That figure does not include the $5.25 million signing bonus he received after being drafted by Baltimore in 2010 or money earned from endorsements.

Machado's earnings accelerated dramatically toward the end of his Orioles career. After spending his first several seasons under baseball's standard team-controlled salary structure, he earned $11.5 million in 2017 and $16 million in 2018.

His move to San Diego transformed him into one of baseball's highest-paid players. His original Padres deal paid him a $20 million signing bonus and eventually carried annual salaries in the $30 million range before being replaced by the 2023 agreement.

Machado has also had endorsement relationships with brands including Nike, Rawlings, and Jordan Brand. He became part of a small group of Major League players selected to represent Michael Jordan's footwear and apparel brand.

Early Life

Manuel Arturo Machado was born on July 6, 1992, in the Miami area of Florida. He is of Dominican heritage and was raised primarily by his mother, Rosa Nunez, with significant help from his grandfather, Francisco Nunez, and other family members.

His grandfather had an especially important influence on his love of baseball. Francisco died while Machado was a senior in high school, and Machado later adopted a ritual of writing his grandfather's initials, "FN," in the dirt before taking the field.

Machado grew up in the Hialeah area and attended Brito Miami Private School. He became one of the country's most highly regarded high school baseball players and drew frequent comparisons to fellow Miami-raised shortstop Alex Rodriguez.

Money was tight during his youth. Machado later recalled saving part of the few dollars his mother gave him for lunch so he could pay for public transportation to baseball practices.

He also played for the United States at the junior international level, joining a 2009 U.S. under-18 team that included Bryce Harper.

MLB Draft

The Baltimore Orioles selected Machado with the third overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft.

He was one of the most highly regarded high school position players available and signed with Baltimore for a $5.25 million bonus.

Machado moved quickly through the Orioles' minor league system. Although he had been drafted as a shortstop, Baltimore had an established shortstop in J.J. Hardy, which eventually led the organization to move Machado to third base.

He reached the majors barely two years after being drafted.

Baltimore Orioles

Machado made his Major League debut for Baltimore on August 9, 2012, at age 20. One day later, he hit two home runs, immediately offering a glimpse of the power that would become a major part of his game.

He became Baltimore's full-time third baseman in 2013 and rapidly established himself as one of baseball's best defensive players. Machado led the American League with 51 doubles, was selected to his first All-Star Game, and won both a Gold Glove and the American League Platinum Glove, which recognizes the league's top overall defensive player.

His progress was interrupted by serious knee injuries. Machado injured his left knee late in the 2013 season and underwent reconstructive surgery. He returned in 2014 but later required surgery on his right knee, ending that season after 82 games.

The injuries created questions about his long-term durability, but Machado responded by becoming one of baseball's most reliable everyday players.

Breakout Seasons

Machado played all 162 games in both 2015 and 2018 and developed into one of the American League's most dangerous hitters.

In 2015, he hit 35 home runs, scored 102 runs, stole 20 bases, and won his second Gold Glove. He finished fourth in American League MVP voting.

Machado was even better offensively in 2016, batting .294 with 37 home runs, 40 doubles, 96 RBI, and 105 runs scored.

One of his most remarkable games came on August 7, 2016, when he hit home runs in each of the first three innings against the Chicago White Sox. All three came before the game reached the fourth inning.

By this point, Machado had moved well beyond being merely an elite defender. He had developed into a middle-of-the-order power hitter capable of playing either third base or shortstop.

Getty

2018 Trade to the Dodgers

The Orioles entered the 2018 season knowing Machado was approaching free agency.

He responded with one of his best offensive starts, batting .315 with 24 home runs and 65 RBI through his first 96 games. Machado was selected as the starting shortstop for the American League in the All-Star Game.

Immediately after the All-Star break, Baltimore traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for five prospects.

Machado became the Dodgers' starting shortstop for the remainder of the season and helped Los Angeles win the National League pennant.

He hit three home runs during the 2018 postseason as the Dodgers advanced to the World Series, where they lost to the Boston Red Sox.

The playoff run concluded Machado's first trip through free agency at exactly the right time. At 26 years old, he was one of the best players ever to reach the open market at such a young age.

Signing With the Padres

The Padres had not reached the postseason since 2006 when they committed $300 million to Machado in February 2019.

His signing became a turning point for the franchise. San Diego was building one of baseball's strongest farm systems, but Machado represented a shift from rebuilding toward aggressively pursuing established stars.

He hit 32 home runs during his first Padres season.

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Machado batted .304 with 16 home runs and 47 RBI in 60 games. He finished third in National League MVP voting and helped lead San Diego back to the postseason for the first time in 14 years.

Machado made another All-Star team in 2021 before producing one of the finest seasons of his career in 2022.

2022 MVP Race and NLCS

Machado hit .298 with 32 home runs, 102 RBI, 37 doubles, and 100 runs in 2022.

He finished second in National League MVP voting behind Paul Goldschmidt.

More importantly for San Diego, Machado helped lead the Padres on their deepest postseason run in decades.

The Padres defeated the New York Mets in the Wild Card Series and then upset the rival Dodgers in the National League Division Series. San Diego advanced to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 1998 before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Machado hit four home runs during the postseason.

That combination of individual performance and team success helped set the stage for his $350 million extension a few months later.

Padres Franchise Records and Career Milestones

Machado continued adding to his résumé after signing his second San Diego contract.

In September 2024, he hit his 164th home run as a Padre, passing Nate Colbert to become the franchise's all-time home run leader. Machado had needed fewer than six full seasons in San Diego to establish the record.

The following season brought two much larger career milestones.

In June 2025, Machado hit his 350th career home run. A month later, he recorded his 2,000th career hit.

Reaching both marks by his age-32 season placed him in rare company. The small group of players who reached at least 2,000 hits and 350 home runs by that age includes Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr., Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, and Alex Rodriguez.

Machado was also selected to his seventh All-Star Game in 2025 and won the third Silver Slugger Award of his career.

By the conclusion of the 2026 regular season, he had accumulated 2,197 hits, 399 home runs, and 1,235 RBI.

Dominican Republic and World Baseball Classic

Although Machado was born and raised in the United States, his family roots are in the Dominican Republic.

He chose to represent the Dominican Republic in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Machado was one of the tournament's standout players and earned MVP honors for Pool C.

He returned to play for the Dominican Republic in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Machado has spoken frequently about the significance of representing his family's heritage and has remained closely connected to both Miami's Dominican community and the Dominican Republic.

Personal Life

Machado is married to Yainee Alonso, the sister of former Major League player Yonder Alonso.

Yonder and Machado became close while training together in Miami and eventually introduced Manny to Yainee. Machado and Yainee began dating after spending time together during a family trip to Spain in 2011.

They married in France in 2014.

The couple welcomed their first child, a son, in 2024.

Machado has credited his family with providing stability throughout a career that has taken him from Baltimore to Los Angeles and San Diego.

He also operates Manny's Hot Corner, a program established in 2022 that brings underserved children to Padres games. Participants receive tickets and meals and have an opportunity to meet Machado before games.

Real Estate

Machado has assembled a valuable real estate portfolio in both South Florida and Southern California.

In 2019, only months after signing his original $300 million Padres contract, Manny paid $11.3 million for a waterfront mansion in the exclusive Tahiti Beach community of Coral Gables, Florida.

The approximately 8,300-square-foot home sits on nearly an acre overlooking Biscayne Bay and has six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms. The property includes 121 feet of waterfront, a swimming pool, spa, elevator, and private dock. It had originally been listed for $22 million.

Also in 2019, Machado and his wife paid exactly $10 million for a waterfront compound in Coronado, California, just across San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego and Petco Park.

Known as "Zee Huis," the roughly 7,300-square-foot property includes eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms spread across three structures. Amenities include an infinity pool, spa, sauna, wine storage, multiple garages, and views across the harbor toward the San Diego skyline.

Machado expanded his South Florida holdings again in September 2020 when he paid $7.2 million for a newly built estate in Coral Gables' gated Hammock Lakes community.

The modern home was designed by architect Max Strang and sits on nearly an acre. It has seven bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, extensive indoor-outdoor living areas, tropical landscaping, and a swimming pool.

Those three purchases alone represent $28.5 million in documented real estate acquisitions.

Read more: Manny Machado Net Worth

Avant is an American R&B singer, songwriter, producer, and record-label owner who has a net worth of $4 million.

Avant, whose real name is Myron Lavell Avant, became one of the most successful male R&B singers of the early 2000s with slow jams including "Separated," "Makin' Good Love," "Read Your Mind," and "My First Love." His 2000 debut album, "My Thoughts," was certified Platinum in the United States, while "Ecstasy" and "Private Room" were certified Gold. By 2008, his U.S. album sales had surpassed three million copies.

Avant's career has been built around a remarkably consistent formula of relationship-driven songwriting, traditional soul vocals, and adult R&B rather than constant reinvention. He collaborated repeatedly with Keke Wyatt, recorded with artists including Kelly Rowland and Snoop Dogg, and released nine studio albums between 2000 and 2020. After beginning his career as the first R&B artist signed to Magic Johnson's record label, Avant eventually formed his own company, MO-B Entertainment, giving him greater control over his music and business.

Early Life

Myron Lavell Avant was born on April 26, 1978, in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up in a large family and began singing at an early age.

Music became a serious interest during his teenage years. Avant began writing songs when he was 14 and attended the Cleveland School of the Arts, where he studied theater before graduating in 1995.

His musical influences came heavily from classic soul and contemporary R&B. Rather than pursuing hip-hop, which was becoming increasingly dominant during the 1990s, Avant concentrated on romantic songs built around vocals, melody, and relationship stories.

After high school, he began recording demos and working toward a professional music career.

"Separated"

Avant's breakthrough came with a song inspired by the end of a relationship.

He wrote "Separated" about the emotional aftermath of a breakup and initially released the song independently. The record began receiving airplay and developed a strong regional following.

The momentum attracted the attention of Magic Johnson Music, a record company founded by retired NBA superstar Magic Johnson and distributed through MCA Records. Avant became the label's first R&B signing.

"Separated" received a major-label release in 2000 and became an immediate hit. It reached #1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and crossed over to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A remix featuring Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child gave the song additional exposure.

The success of "Separated" transformed Avant from an unknown Cleveland singer into a nationally recognized R&B artist and provided the foundation for his debut album.

"My Thoughts"

Avant released his debut album, "My Thoughts," in May 2000 through MCA Records and Magic Johnson Music.

The album debuted inside the top 10 of Billboard's R&B albums chart and eventually sold more than one million copies in the United States, earning a Platinum certification.

"Separated" was its biggest original hit, but another song became equally important to Avant's career.

He recorded a cover of René & Angela's 1983 ballad "My First Love" with Keke Wyatt. Their vocal chemistry helped turn the remake into one of the most popular R&B duets of the era.

"My First Love" reached #4 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and #26 on the Hot 100. The collaboration also provided Wyatt with a major early-career breakthrough.

Avant and Wyatt would subsequently become one of modern R&B's most recognizable recurring duet pairings.

"Ecstasy" and "Makin' Good Love"

Avant released his second album, "Ecstasy," in March 2002.

The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making it one of the highest-charting releases of his career.

Its signature single, "Makin' Good Love," reinforced Avant's image as one of R&B's leading slow-jam singers. The song reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became another top-10 R&B hit.

"Ecstasy" sold more than 700,000 copies and was certified Gold.

The album demonstrated that "Separated" had not been an isolated success. Avant had established a durable audience willing to follow him from album to album.

"Private Room" and "Read Your Mind"

After MCA Records was absorbed into Geffen, Avant released his third studio album, "Private Room," in December 2003.

The album reached #18 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It was subsequently certified Gold.

Its biggest single, "Read Your Mind," became the highest-charting Hot 100 hit of Avant's career, reaching #13.

The song's success helped cement his place among the leading male R&B vocalists of the early 2000s, alongside artists such as Joe, Ginuwine, Tank, and R. Kelly.

Avant's songs were frequently compared with R. Kelly's work because of their vocal style and romantic subject matter. Avant later worked to distance himself creatively from those comparisons, emphasizing his own songwriting and identity.

"Director"

Avant released "Director" in 2006.

The album continued his streak of strong R&B chart performances and included the singles "4 Minutes" and "Lie About Us."

"4 Minutes" became another substantial hit on urban radio, while "Lie About Us" featured Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls.

By this point, Avant had developed a catalog broad enough to tour without relying solely on his earliest hits. His albums were also increasingly built around his own writing and production ideas rather than simply pairing him with outside producers.

During the first half of his career, his records collectively sold millions of copies in the United States. Universal Music later credited Avant with more than three million U.S. album sales by the time he transitioned away from Geffen.

Capitol Records and "When It Hurts"

Avant moved to Capitol Records for his self-titled fifth album, "Avant," released in December 2008.

The project's lead single, "When It Hurts," returned him to the upper levels of the R&B charts. The song reached #15 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and also crossed onto the Billboard Hot 100.

The album demonstrated Avant's ability to remain commercially relevant even as mainstream R&B was shifting toward more electronic production and stronger hip-hop influences.

He continued to focus on adult relationship songs rather than chasing newer trends.

Getty

"The Letter"

Avant moved to Verve Forecast for his sixth studio album, "The Letter," released in 2010.

The project featured production from the Avila Brothers, Mike City, and other established R&B producers.

Its lead single, "Kiss Goodbye," became a hit on adult R&B radio, reaching #11 on Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart.

The album itself was less commercially successful than his early releases, but Avant had reached a stage in his career where touring, catalog consumption, and adult R&B radio provided a durable business even without major pop crossover hits.

"Face the Music"

Avant entered a more independent phase of his career with 2013's "Face the Music."

The album marked an important transition away from relying entirely on major-label infrastructure. It also reunited him with Keke Wyatt on "You & I."

The duet became a major adult R&B success and reached #1 on Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart. More than a decade after "My First Love," Avant and Wyatt had proven that the audience for their collaborations remained intact.

"Face the Music" returned Avant to the top 10 of Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

"The VIII"

Avant released his eighth studio album, "The VIII," in 2015.

The title referenced the fact that it was his eighth full-length release. By then, he had been recording professionally for 15 years, a lengthy run in a genre where artists frequently struggle to maintain major-label careers beyond a few albums.

The project included songs such as "Special," "Not Gone Lose," and "Best Friend."

Avant described himself during this period as a storyteller who drew songwriting ideas from conversations and real relationship experiences.

He also emphasized fatherhood, saying that becoming a parent had changed how he thought about his future and career.

MO-B Entertainment

As his career progressed, Avant increasingly prioritized ownership and independence.

He established his own label, MO-B Entertainment, allowing him to exercise greater control over recording, release strategy, and his catalog.

The transition reflected a broader shift among veteran R&B artists who had spent their early careers under traditional major-label deals. Streaming and digital distribution made it increasingly possible for established performers with loyal audiences to release music without the infrastructure that had once been essential.

Avant has spoken positively about reaching a point where he could control both the business and creative sides of his career.

"Can We Fall in Love"

After a five-year gap between albums, Avant returned in 2020 with his ninth studio album, "Can We Fall in Love."

The project arrived during the 20th anniversary of "My Thoughts" and was framed as a return to relationship-focused R&B.

Avant said he wanted to make music about being in love rather than simply making love, contrasting the album's themes with what he felt had become a more disposable approach to relationships in contemporary music.

Songs included "Not Gone Lose," "Edible," "Take It Slow," and the title track.

Avant continued releasing music after the album, including the 2026 single "Back To You."

Keke Wyatt Collaborations

Keke Wyatt has been Avant's most enduring musical collaborator.

Their first major duet, "My First Love," became a hit in 2000 and remains one of the songs most closely associated with both singers.

They reunited more than a decade later for "You & I," which reached #1 on Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart.

Their voices became so closely associated that they have frequently appeared together in concerts and R&B package tours. The partnership gave both artists a pair of signature duets spanning different stages of their careers.

Other Collaborations and Acting

Avant has collaborated with a wide variety of R&B and hip-hop performers.

His credits include appearances with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Lloyd Banks, The Pussycat Dolls, Lil Wayne, and Snoop Dogg. He was featured on a remix of Lloyd Banks' "Karma" and recorded a version of the Pussycat Dolls' "Stickwitu."

Avant also made occasional appearances outside music. He had a cameo in the 2004 comedy "Barbershop 2: Back in Business" and appeared in David E. Talbert's stage production "Love in the Nick of Tyme."

Television appearances over the years have included reality programming, music specials, and retrospectives on his career.

Record Sales and Streaming

Avant's financial success has been driven primarily by his catalog, touring, publishing, and decades of consistent R&B consumption rather than one enormous crossover blockbuster.

"My Thoughts" sold more than one million copies in the United States and was certified Platinum. "Ecstasy" sold more than 700,000 copies and was certified Gold, while "Private Room" also achieved Gold status.

By 2008, his American album sales had surpassed three million units.

His early catalog has subsequently benefited from streaming. Songs including "My First Love," "Read Your Mind," "Separated," and "Makin' Good Love" continue to generate substantial listening decades after their initial release.

That long-tail consumption, combined with touring and greater ownership of his later music through MO-B Entertainment, has allowed Avant to maintain a professional music career long after the peak CD-sales era in which he debuted.

Personal Life

Avant has generally kept his private life out of the public eye.

He is a father and has discussed how having children changed his perspective on money, work, and long-term stability. He has been far less public about relationships and family life than many performers from his era.

Avant has also dealt with false internet rumors concerning his health. In 2019, viral stories claimed that he was gravely ill and had been given only months to live. His representatives rejected the claims, and Avant continued recording and performing.

Throughout his career, he has maintained close ties to Cleveland and has frequently spoken about the importance of representing the city that produced him.

More than 25 years after "Separated" first introduced him to a national audience, Avant remains closely associated with the era of early-2000s R&B in which strong vocal performances, slow jams, and relationship storytelling dominated urban radio.

Read more: Avant Net Worth

Neal McCoy is an American country music singer and entertainer who has a net worth of $10 million.

Neal McCoy became one of country music's most popular live performers during the 1990s, scoring back-to-back #1 hits with "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" and building a catalog that ultimately produced three Platinum albums, one Gold album, and numerous Top 10 country singles. Unlike many Nashville stars, McCoy built much of his reputation on relentless touring and an unusually energetic stage show, a style he learned during years opening concerts for his mentor, Charley Pride.

His best-known songs include "No Doubt About It," "Wink," "For a Change," "They're Playin' Our Song," "You Gotta Love That," "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye," "The Shake," and "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On." McCoy has released 15 studio albums and sold more than six million records. Away from commercial music, he has completed 17 USO tours around the world and, with his wife Melinda, created the East Texas Angel Network, which has raised millions of dollars for families caring for children with serious illnesses. Decades after his chart peak, McCoy continues to maintain an active touring schedule.

Early Life

Neal McCoy was born Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas. His father was of Irish ancestry, while his mother was born in the Philippines. McCoy has jokingly described himself as a "Texapino."

His household exposed him to a wide range of music. Country was part of the mix, but McCoy also listened to rock, R&B, soul, disco, and swing. He sang in church and eventually performed with an R&B band before concentrating more seriously on country music.

McCoy attended junior college and worked ordinary jobs while pursuing music locally. At one point, he sold shoes at a mall, where he met his future wife, Melinda. He also ran a lawn-mowing business while playing Texas bars and clubs at night.

His birth surname proved cumbersome in show business. He initially performed under the spelling "McGoy," an attempt to make the pronunciation clearer, before eventually settling on McCoy.

Meeting Charley Pride

The turning point in McCoy's early career came in 1981 when he entered a talent competition at the Belle Starr nightclub in Dallas.

Country singer Janie Fricke was one of the judges. McCoy won the competition, and Fricke was sufficiently impressed to arrange an introduction to Charley Pride.

Pride was already one of the most successful country performers in the world. After seeing McCoy perform, he invited the young singer to open his concerts.

McCoy spent the better part of the next six or seven years touring with Pride. The arrangement gave him something far more valuable than an immediate hit record: night after night of experience performing before large audiences.

Pride also became a mentor and close friend. McCoy later credited him with teaching not only how to entertain a crowd but how to treat fans, musicians, promoters, and employees away from the stage.

Even while performing for thousands of people on weekends, McCoy still needed outside income during portions of this period and continued mowing lawns during the week.

First Record Deals

McCoy's first recording opportunities arrived during the late 1980s.

He briefly signed with 16th Avenue Records and released "That's How Much I Love You" under the name Neal McGoy. When that arrangement ended, he continued performing and searching for another deal.

Atlantic Records eventually signed him around 1990.

His debut Atlantic album, "At This Moment," was followed by "Where Forever Begins." Neither produced the major breakthrough McCoy and the label hoped for, although "Where Forever Begins" gave him his first meaningful country-chart exposure.

By the time he began preparing his third album, McCoy understood that his recording career might be running out of chances.

Producer Barry Beckett took a different approach. Rather than forcing McCoy to fit a conventional Nashville style, Beckett watched his live show and looked for songs that matched the performer's personality.

The change worked immediately.

Neal McCoy / Ethan Miller/Getty Images

"No Doubt About It"

McCoy's career exploded with the album "No Doubt About It."

The title track became his first #1 country single, and the follow-up, "Wink," also reached #1. "Wink" remained atop the country chart for several weeks and became one of McCoy's signature songs.

The album was certified Platinum in the United States for sales of more than one million copies.

The success was particularly satisfying because McCoy was already in his mid-30s by the time he became a national star. He had spent more than a decade performing professionally without a major hit.

Rather than arriving overnight, his breakthrough was the result of years spent learning how to command a stage.

"You Gotta Love That!"

McCoy followed his breakthrough with "You Gotta Love That!" in 1995.

The album produced another run of major country hits, including "For a Change," "They're Playin' Our Song," and the title track.

"You Gotta Love That!" became another Platinum seller.

By this point, McCoy was firmly established as one of the more popular country performers of the decade. His appeal differed somewhat from many of his contemporaries because concerts were at least as important to his reputation as his recordings.

McCoy became known for moving constantly around the stage, interacting directly with the crowd, improvising, joking, and occasionally incorporating material far outside traditional country music.

His live sets could include soul, pop, novelty numbers, impersonations, or his unusual "Hillbilly Rap," which mixed elements of "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," and "Rapper's Delight."

Continued 1990s Success

McCoy released the self-titled album "Neal McCoy" in 1996.

The project included "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye," his version of the Casinos' 1960s pop hit. McCoy's recording became a major country hit, and its music video won Video of the Year at the TNN/Music City News Country Awards.

"The Shake" followed and became another of his defining songs. Its playful video and energetic delivery fit McCoy's increasingly established identity as an entertainer rather than simply a recording artist.

Other albums during the decade included "Be Good at It" and "The Life of the Party."

McCoy's 1990s catalog ultimately produced three Platinum albums and one Gold album, while his greatest-hits collection also enjoyed substantial sales.

His popularity with concert audiences was reflected in one of the more unusual achievements of his career. Fans voted him Entertainer of the Year at the TNN/Music City News Country Awards in both 1998 and 1999, placing him ahead of some of the biggest commercial stars in country music.

903 Music and "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On"

After his run with Atlantic, McCoy recorded for Giant Records and Warner Bros., but his relationship with major labels became increasingly unsettled.

Rather than simply waiting for another company to decide whether to release his music, McCoy eventually created his own record label, 903 Music, with his management team.

The first major release from the company became an unexpected comeback hit.

"Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" was released in 2005 and reached #10 on Billboard's country chart. It was McCoy's first Top 10 country single in eight years.

The song appeared on the independently released album "That's Life."

The experience gave McCoy greater control over the business side of his recordings, although operating a record company proved considerably more complicated than simply recording and touring. 903 Music ultimately closed after a relatively short run.

Later Albums

McCoy continued recording after the major-label phase of his career ended.

In 2012, he released "XII," co-produced by Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, and Brent Rowan.

The following year brought one of the most personal projects of his career, "Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride." The album allowed McCoy to honor the performer who had given him his first major professional opportunity decades earlier.

McCoy followed with "You Don't Know Me," a collection that drew on big-band and traditional pop standards, once again demonstrating the broad musical tastes he had developed as a child.

His later catalog also included "Neal McCoy's Favorite Hits," which revisited many of the songs most closely associated with his career while adding new material.

Record Sales and Touring

McCoy has sold more than six million records over the course of his career.

His catalog includes 15 studio albums and 34 singles released to country radio. "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" became his two Billboard country #1 singles, while a long list of other songs reached the Top 10.

Even after country radio moved toward younger generations of artists, McCoy maintained an unusually active live schedule.

That longevity reflects the way he built his career in the first place. Long before his records began selling in large numbers, McCoy already knew how to entertain audiences because of the thousands of shows he had performed as Pride's opening act and on the Texas club circuit.

His concert business has therefore remained a significant component of his career long after his commercial recording peak.

USO Tours

Supporting American military personnel has become one of the most important parts of McCoy's career.

His first major USO experience came after entertainer Wayne Newton invited him to participate in an overseas tour in 2001.

McCoy subsequently traveled repeatedly with the USO to perform for American service members stationed around the world, including troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Europe.

He has completed 17 USO tours.

McCoy has connected his commitment to the military partly to his family background. His mother was born in the Philippines, and he has said she made sure her children understood the opportunities they had because they were growing up in the United States.

The tours ultimately became one of the accomplishments of which McCoy has said he is most proud.

East Texas Angel Network

In 1995, Neal and Melinda McCoy founded the East Texas Angel Network.

The nonprofit assists East Texas families whose children are living with serious or life-threatening illnesses. Rather than attempting to pay major hospital bills, the organization helps families with the secondary expenses that often become overwhelming during a medical crisis, including rent, utilities, food, transportation, and travel.

The organization's major annual fundraiser combines a benefit concert, sponsor dinner, auction, and golf tournament. Over the years, McCoy has recruited friends from music, sports, and entertainment to participate.

Guests and supporters have included performers and athletes such as Martina McBride, Lorrie Morgan, B.J. Thomas, Nolan Ryan, Troy Aikman, Wayne Newton, and Charley Pride.

By the mid-2020s, the organization had raised more than $14 million and assisted hundreds of East Texas families.

McCoy's charitable work earned him the ACM/Home Depot Humanitarian Award in 2005 and the Country Radio Broadcasters' Artist Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2006. In 2007, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Texas presented him with its W.B. and Brandon Carrell Humanitarian Award, its highest honor for a non-Mason.

Daily Pledge of Allegiance

In 2016, McCoy began an unusual social-media tradition.

Every morning, he went live on Facebook and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. What began as a simple patriotic gesture became an uninterrupted daily ritual.

McCoy continued the broadcasts for thousands of consecutive days, often filming them from hotels, airports, buses, concert venues, his home, or wherever touring happened to take him.

The videos attracted millions of views and developed their own audience independent of his music.

Awards and Honors

In addition to his two TNN/Music City News Entertainer of the Year victories, McCoy has received numerous awards recognizing both his music and charitable work.

"Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" won Video of the Year at the TNN/Music City News Country Awards, while "The Shake" received major music-video recognition. "Wink" earned the BMI Robert J. Burton Award as the most-performed country song of the year.

McCoy was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

His humanitarian awards have ultimately become nearly as prominent in his biography as his chart achievements.

Personal Life

McCoy met his future wife, Melinda, while working at a shoe store in Texas. They married in 1980, before his professional music career had gained momentum.

The couple have two children, daughter Miki and son Swayde.

McCoy made the unusual decision to remain based in East Texas even after becoming a major country star. Rather than relocating permanently to Nashville, he continued traveling back and forth for recording sessions, industry obligations, and touring.

He has said that staying in Texas helped keep his family life separate from the Nashville music business and allowed his children to grow up with greater stability.

That decision also strengthened McCoy's connection to the East Texas community that later became the focus of his charitable work.

More than four decades after winning the talent contest that introduced him to Charley Pride, McCoy continues touring from the same part of Texas where his career began.

Read more: Neal McCoy Net Worth

Jace Norman is an American actor, producer, director, and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $3 million.

Jace Norman is best known for starring as Henry Hart, also known as Kid Danger, on the Nickelodeon comedy series "Henry Danger." Norman was just 14 when the show premiered in 2014, and he remained its central star through five seasons and more than 120 episodes. "Henry Danger" became one of Nickelodeon's biggest live-action franchises, spawning the animated series "The Adventures of Kid Danger," the spinoff "Danger Force," and the 2025 feature-length "Henry Danger: The Movie." Norman won five consecutive Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Male TV Star between 2017 and 2021.

Norman gradually expanded his role behind the camera as he grew up. He produced the final episodes of "Henry Danger," became a producer on "Danger Force," executive produced "Henry Danger: The Movie," and signed an overall development deal with Nickelodeon and AwesomenessTV through his production company, Starlight. Outside acting, he co-founded the influencer marketing company Creator Edge Media while still a teenager. His other acting credits include "Splitting Adam," "Rufus," "Rufus 2," "Blurt," "Bixler High Private Eye," and the animated feature "Spark: A Space Tail."

Early Life

Jace Lee Norman was born on March 21, 2000, in Corrales, New Mexico. He grew up with an older brother, Xander, and an older sister, Glory.

Norman spent much of his childhood outdoors around his family's property in New Mexico before the family moved to Southern California when he was eight years old. He and his brother also experimented with making homemade videos, giving Norman an early introduction to performing in front of a camera.

Norman has dyslexia and was diagnosed while he was in elementary school. He has spoken publicly about being bullied and struggling academically because of the condition. His father also has dyslexia, and Norman has said seeing his father's success as an entrepreneur helped him understand that the learning disability did not have to limit his ambitions.

Norman became interested in professional acting after moving to California. He persuaded his parents to let him pursue auditions and signed with an agent when he was 12.

Early Acting Career

Norman's first professional audition resulted in a role on the Disney Channel series "Jessie" in 2012. He played Finch in the episode "Are You Cooler Than a 5th Grader?"

He subsequently appeared on the Nickelodeon anthology series "Deadtime Stories" and guest-starred on "The Thundermans."

Those small television roles gave Norman experience on professional sets, but his career changed dramatically in 2014 when Nickelodeon cast him in the lead role of a new superhero comedy.

"Henry Danger"

Norman began starring as Henry Hart in "Henry Danger" in 2014.

The series follows an ordinary teenager who takes an after-school job working for Ray Manchester, better known as the superhero Captain Man. Henry becomes Captain Man's sidekick, Kid Danger, while trying to keep his superhero identity secret from his friends and family.

Cooper Barnes played Captain Man, with Riele Downs as Charlotte, Sean Ryan Fox as Jasper, Ella Anderson as Henry's younger sister Piper, and Michael D. Cohen as Schwoz.

"Henry Danger" premiered in July 2014 and developed into one of Nickelodeon's most successful live-action programs. By 2016, Nickelodeon described it as the #1 kids' television show in the United States.

Norman effectively grew up on the series. He was a young teenager when production began and was 20 by the time the final episode aired in March 2020.

The show ultimately produced five seasons and more than 120 episodes. Its unusually long run for a children's sitcom allowed Norman to become one of the most recognizable Nickelodeon performers of his generation.

Kids' Choice Awards

Norman's popularity with Nickelodeon's audience translated into a remarkable run at the network's Kids' Choice Awards.

He won Favorite Male TV Star in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, giving him five consecutive victories in the category.

"Henry Danger" itself also won Favorite Kids TV Show.

The awards came during a period when Norman was not simply the lead of one television series but increasingly the face of a larger franchise spanning live-action television, animation, movies, digital content, and merchandise.

(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Nickelodeon Movies

Nickelodeon built several original movies around Norman during the height of "Henry Danger."

In 2015, he starred as Adam Baker in "Splitting Adam." The comedy revolves around a teenager who accidentally clones himself and begins using multiple versions of himself to handle his overloaded schedule.

Norman next starred in 2016's "Rufus," playing a teenager whose dog is transformed into a human after wearing a mysterious pendant. The movie was successful enough to produce "Rufus 2" in 2017.

He voiced the title character in the animated feature "Spark: A Space Tail," whose cast also included Patrick Stewart, Jessica Biel, and Susan Sarandon.

In 2018, Norman starred as Jeremy Martin in the Nickelodeon movie "Blurt" alongside JoJo Siwa and Daniella Perkins. Norman also served as a co-executive producer.

He followed with 2019's "Bixler High Private Eye," playing teenage detective Xander DeWitt. Norman was also an executive producer on the movie, demonstrating his growing interest in working behind the camera.

"The Adventures of Kid Danger"

The popularity of "Henry Danger" led Nickelodeon to expand the franchise into animation.

"The Adventures of Kid Danger" premiered in 2018 and featured Norman voicing an animated version of Henry Hart/Kid Danger. Much of the original live-action cast also returned to voice their characters.

The series grew out of a collection of animated digital shorts featuring Henry and Captain Man that had already generated tens of millions of views online.

Although the full animated series lasted only one season, it demonstrated the extent to which Nickelodeon was attempting to expand "Henry Danger" beyond the original sitcom.

Becoming a Producer

Norman began taking a more active role behind the scenes during the final season of "Henry Danger."

He received producer credits on 11 episodes of the series in 2020. Rather than simply moving on after the show ended, he remained involved in the franchise's continuation.

Nickelodeon launched the spinoff "Danger Force" in March 2020. The series followed Captain Man and Schwoz as they trained a new group of young superheroes.

Norman became a producer on "Danger Force" and also periodically returned onscreen as Henry Hart. He ultimately received producing credits across the run of the series and later made his directorial debut with an episode of the show.

The move into production reflected an ambition Norman had been discussing publicly for years. Rather than remaining exclusively an actor, he wanted to learn how projects were created, developed, financed, and produced.

Overall Nickelodeon Deal

In 2022, Norman took a significant step toward that goal when he signed an overall agreement with Nickelodeon and AwesomenessTV.

Under the deal, Norman and his production company, Starlight, would develop, executive produce, and potentially star in original projects for Nickelodeon, Awesomeness, Paramount+, and other platforms within the company's entertainment portfolio.

Norman described the agreement as an opportunity to transition from simply acting in shows to helping create them.

The first major project announced under the agreement was a live-action "Henry Danger" movie.

"Henry Danger: The Movie"

Norman returned to the role that made him famous in "Henry Danger: The Movie," which premiered on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon in January 2025.

The movie reunited Norman with several members of the original cast, including Sean Ryan Fox, Ella Anderson, Michael D. Cohen, and Frankie Grande. Glee Dango joined the franchise as Missy Martin, a Kid Danger superfan who becomes involved in an adventure involving alternate realities.

Norman did considerably more than reprise his role. He also served as an executive producer.

The movie represented a continuation of the franchise nearly five years after the original television series ended and more than a decade after Norman first began playing Henry Hart.

"Henry Danger: The Movie" was subsequently nominated for Outstanding Fiction Special at the Children's & Family Emmy Awards, with Norman recognized as one of the project's executive producers.

Creator Edge Media

Norman began experimenting with business ventures while he was still starring on "Henry Danger."

At 17, he co-founded Creator Edge Media, a company designed to connect social-media creators with advertisers and brands.

Norman had watched traditional television advertising begin competing with the rapidly growing influencer economy and believed young online creators were not always being represented effectively in negotiations with major companies.

Creator Edge attempted to position itself between those two worlds. Rather than treating social-media personalities as interchangeable advertising inventory, the company sought partnerships that gave creators more control over how products were presented to their audiences.

Nickelodeon itself eventually partnered with Creator Edge on original digital content.

For Norman, the company was an early example of his interest in building businesses rather than relying exclusively on acting income. He has credited his entrepreneurial father with influencing that side of his personality.

Dyslexia

Norman has frequently used his platform to discuss dyslexia.

He has explained that school could be frustrating because reading, spelling, and traditional classroom work were more difficult for him than they were for many classmates. Other students sometimes interpreted those struggles as a lack of intelligence.

Norman has pushed back against that idea and has described dyslexia as something that forced him to develop alternative ways of thinking and solving problems.

His experiences contributed to his interest in entrepreneurship. Norman has pointed to successful dyslexic businesspeople as examples of people whose minds may work differently from the conventional academic model but who can excel in creative and commercial environments.

He has also spoken publicly about bullying in an effort to encourage younger fans facing similar issues.

Personal Life

Norman has generally kept his adult personal life relatively private.

During his teenage years, his popularity on Nickelodeon made him a major social-media figure, but as he moved into his twenties, he became less focused on maintaining the constant online presence common among young entertainers.

His older brother, Xander Norman, has collaborated with him on digital content and business ventures.

Norman has also maintained a connection to his hometown of Corrales, New Mexico, despite spending much of his professional life in Southern California.

Career Beyond Child Stardom

Norman's career has followed a different trajectory from many performers who become famous through children's television.

Rather than immediately attempting to reinvent himself through dramatically different adult acting roles, he increasingly moved toward producing, directing, developing projects, and entrepreneurship while retaining a connection to the franchise that made him famous.

By the time "Henry Danger: The Movie" arrived in 2025, Norman had progressed from a teenage actor hired to play Kid Danger to an executive producer with a long-term development relationship with Nickelodeon.

The original series remains the defining project of his career, but his evolution from child star to producer has given him considerably more control over how and when he participates in the entertainment business.

Read more: Jace Norman Net Worth