Why The Challenge: Cutthroat winners won’t keep all the prize money, thanks to a whopping tax hit
It's not that much...
The Orange Team members Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, Chris “CT” Tamburello, Tori Deal, Michele Fitzgerald and Will Gagnon just won The Challenge: Cutthroat season 42, but they won’t be taking home all of their promised prize money.
Collectively, they won $500,000, which split between the five winners, is $100,000 each. But they won’t be taking home $100,000.
After taxes, they’ll likely only take home around $70,000, losing about $30,000 to state and federal taxes. This is just an estimate, as taxes vary depending on your salary and home state.
CT is based in Massachusetts, with state taxes taking out around $5,000 and federal taxes taking out a whopping $32,000. So he’ll only be walking away with $63,000.
Bananas is similar, likely walking away with only $60,000. So the two biggest names in the group, and the richest, cash in the smallest cheques.
Tori, Michele, and Will will take home a slightly bigger chunk, most likely around $70,000 to $75,000. But once again, this all depends on their other income and home state.
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In a finale twist, Tori was the one to decide how much of the prize fund each team member gets. I guess she was feeling nice and decided to split it evenly amongst the Orange team.
This isn’t the first Challenge wins for some of these players. For Bananas, season 42 marks his eighth championship making him the winningest competitor in franchise history. Close behind that impressive feat is CT, with six championships under his belt. While she’s one of the most recognised names in Challenge history, this is only Tori’s second win.
With season 42 coming to a close, there hasn’t been any word yet whether The Challenge will be renewed for it’s 43rd season. However, the host TJ Lavin did reveal on Johnny Bananas’ podcast that he does know they will be filming another season.