Even the first Survivor contestant to be sent home from the show still gets a huge salary
They literally get so much
It turns out that Survivor contestants all get a huge sum, and it’s not exactly like it’s small. Even if you’re the first contestant to be sent home on the show, you still get a whopping $12,500, but to be fair, they have still been away for at least 26 days as part of protocol.
This amount covers their time on the island as well as any contractual obligations, such as participating in the pre-jury trip or media appearances. Then, any jury members get a huge $40K payout, and obviously, you get $1 million as the winner and $110K as a runner-up.
In special returning-player seasons like Winners at War, base salaries and prize money are higher, with the grand prize doubling to $2 million and the minimum payout jumping to $25K. And we have to factor in just how hard they all study and train for the show!
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For castaways who are voted out pre-jury, they basically get an all-expenses paid trip to Fiji as they are required to stay for the entirety of the production build-up to avoid spoilers. Each contestant reportedly gets $10,000 for the live finale and reunion taping, too!
In an interview with TMZ, Jonny Fairplay spilled the beans on how much castaways allegedly make: he confirmed that the first person eliminated can make $12,500, adding that jury members get $40,000. “I’m not sure I was allowed to say that,” he noted after.
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He added: “I might’ve broken an NDA.” They no longer do the fan-favourite award, but the winner of that public vote would receive $100,000 or a car, if it was sponsored. And even the crew behind the scenes get a seriously glamorous accommodation to stay in, too.
Host Jeff Probst revealed during his 2014 Reddit AMA: “In the Philippines we were situated in the middle of the ocean. On this one island there just happened to be a massive (usually empty) casino and a large hotel (usually empty). We all had our own rooms with showers!”
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