Frankly, no amount of money would be enough to convince most Australians to go and live in the Channel Nine Big Brother house.
Over-confident 20-somethings fighting over breakfast cereal may occasionally make for okay light entertainment, but living in the house would be another story.
However for those who do compete, it’s a huge opportunity and also a chance to earn a bit of cash – or at least – enough cash to get by.
As well as the possibility of prizes, sponsorships, and potential careers in the media ranging from impressive (like radio personality Chrissie Swan, who is a 2003 BB alum) to awful (remember that ‘Hotdogs’ guy? From 2005? Who went on to host an awful TV show? Neither do we…) an ‘insider’ has revealed to news.com.au that yes, the contestants do get a bit of compensation.
$75 a day, to be precise.
$75 per day = $525 per week = $2325 per month.
According to ex-contestant Joel Scalzi, that’s plenty.
“$500 a week for doing not much … sure I thought that was enough,” said Joel, who lasted 92 days in the house in 2007 and therefore earned about $6900 (thanks, calculator).
“The money more than covered my bills and my rent while I was on the show … plus I won a $7,000 bonus (from one of the sponsors for lasting so long in the house) and a car worth $20,000.
“It was definitely worthwhile.”
Hmmmm. That’s a judgement call, Joel.
Big Brother screens on Channel Nine, six nights a week.
Top Comments
That's the standard rate for reality shows. They should be paid more considering the network is earning a motza from advertising dollars. No, they're not doing much but the network is still making a lot of money from these people instead of paying actors and writers which would be significantly more. And as people have mentioned, they come out and don't usually get anything else out of it - which is fair enough but I would want more to be compensated for my time and image. And I say this as a disability pensioner who of course struggles on my money but that's a completely different issue to TV pay.
The low pay would be the reason why there is not much diversity in the house, the only people who can really afford to it are young ones who don't have any large financial responsibilities. That money would not cover a lot of peoples mortgage/rent, utilities, groceries, childcare, insurance, etc all of which still need to be paid if you have a family at home so that rules most parents out.
I couldn't remember Hotdogs either (don't watch the show, so no surprises there) BUT when I google 'hotdogs' the first thing I get is 'hotdogs big brother'! Ha! Pretty popular.
They get paid for sitting around the house, I pay a university for sitting around the house (and writing essays). Can you do BB and external study concurrently?!! Hahaha.