• Forbes, Wednesday, May 16, 2012 2:27 PM

Look who’s moved up on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list: Rush Limbaugh, to #19, from #23 a year earlier, despite the ongoing advertiser boycott of his radio show.  

Jeff Bercovici offers two explanations.  First, the Celebrity 100 covers a one-year period ending this past April 30 and, since the ad boycott “didn’t really kick in until mid-March,” only a month and a half of Limbaugh’s earnings were affected.

Second, only some of Limbaugh’s radio earnings come from ad sales: he is guaranteed $50 million a year from his eight-year deal with syndicator Premiere Radio, for example, which makes up a sizable chunk of the $69 million in Limbaugh’s total earnings during the annual period, up from $64 million a year earlier.

 For next year, Bercovici says to expect Limbaugh to drop in the rankings, but maybe not as much as you’d think – ad sales for the show will be down just 4%.

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