Do ‘Bachelor’ Contestants Get Paid? How Much Zach’s Cast Made Per Episode
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If you’ve been a member of Bachelor Nation for years, you may be curious to know how much The Bachelor and The Bachelorette contestants make and get paid per episode or season. Let us explain.
The Bachelor premiered 2002, while The Bachelorette has been on TV 2003, which means that there have been hundreds of Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants over the years. As fans know, many contestants go on to have careers as Instagram influencers, podcast hosts and authors after their time in the Bachelor franchise—even if they don’t win or become the Bachelor or the Bachelorette. So even if a contestant doesn’t end up finding love, they don’t walk away with nothing.
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Along with millions of Instagram followers waiting for them, the Bachelor and Bachelor contestants also have the opportunity to transform their careers into something different than what they were before. While some contestants return to their old jobs, many start new careers as reality TV personalities, which we’re sure pay more anyways. (Of course, this also depends on when a contestant was eliminated and if they were a fan favorite for their season, but still, even villains have been known to make a career out of Bachelor Nation.) But back to our original question: How much do Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants make on the show? Well, we did the research to find out.
How much do Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants get paid?
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How much do Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants get paid? This may come as a surprise to fans, but Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants aren’t paid. Yup. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette contestants make nothing for their time on the ABC reality TV shows. Not only that, but contestants have to pay for their styling themselves (those rose ceremony suits and dresses aren’t cheap!), which is why many contestants walk away from their time on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette with serious debt. “I know that there are women in the past who cashed out their 401(k)s for the show,” Tv blogger Dana Weiss told Mic in 2016. “Some have gone into serious credit card debt.” This isn’t to mention Bachelor or Bachelorette contestants quit their job to appear on the reality TV series.
The leads of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, on the other hand, are paid. According to Reality Steve, recent leads make a minimum of $100,000, though there is a chance for that number to go up. (For example, season 8 Bachelorette Emily Maynard earned a reported $250,000 after negotiations with ABC.) However, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette weren’t always the cash cows they are now. In Amy Kaufman’s 2018 book, Bachelor Nation, reporter Amy Kauffman revealed that season 2 Bachelorette Meredith Phillips made only $10,000 for her time on reality TV. Welp.
How much do Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants spend?
So how much of an investment is The Bachelor or The Bachelorette? According to several reports, women on The Bachelor spend four times as much as men on The Bachelorette, which makes sense, given that many Bachelorette contestants wear the same suits (or share) and don’t spend as much on hair and makeup. (Step it up, dudes.) Women on The Bachelor, on the other hand, have been known for spend thousands.
“The girls do have to bring all of their own clothing and of course, they want to be wearing the best clothes EVER to be seen on TV in,” season 13 Bachelor contestant Jillian Harris wrote in a blog in 2016. “I had re-mortgaged my house and I spent something like $8,000 on clothing.”
On The Bachelor season 20, contestant Amanda Stanton claimed that competitor Olivia Caridi spent $40,000 on clothes for the show, though that number wasn’t confirmed. “[She] said she spent, like, $40,000 on clothes,” Amanda said.
In an essay for Glamour in 2018, Bekah Martinez, a contestant on The Bachelor season 22, said that she spent hundreds of dollars and ended up returning most of it after she was eliminated. “Spending money was a little scary because I basically quit my nanny job to go on the show,” she said. “I didn’t realize how difficult it would be coming back. I had six weeks of not working, and then on top of that I didn’t get paid at all for being on the show. Plus, I took out expenses in preparation and then had to pay rent and bills while I was gone. I was definitely pretty broke when I got home.”
Though many Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants’ expenses net out after their fame from the show and their careers as reality TV personalities, there still many contestants who are eliminated in night one or night two, who have maybe quit their jobs or spent thousands of dollars only to receive less than a couple minutes of air time. Long story short, the Bachelor franchise is an investment.
How much do the Bachelor and the Bachelorette make?
According to Reality Steve, the current standard rate for Bachelors and Bachelorettes is $100,000. Though we can’t know for sure, this means that many of our recent favorite leads (Ben Higgins, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Rachel Lindsay) likely made around $100K for their seasons, which isn’t bad for two months worth of work. Season 14 Bachelorette contestant Jason Tartick confirmed in a podcast in May 2021 that he and his cast mates, Colton Underwod and Blake Horstmann, were all offered $100,000 to be The Bachelor. Still, though most Bachelors and Bachelorettes make at least $100,000 these days, that wasn’t always the case. And, like most jobs, there are some Bachelors and Bachelorettes who have been able to negotiate more money than their peers. Some also made less than the standard. Dean Unglert, a contestant on The Bachelorette season 12, revealed in a past interview that he was offered $75,000 to be the Bachelor.
How much do Bachelor in Paradise contestants get paid?
How much do Bachelor in Paradise contestants get paid? Well, according to a 2017 report by Reality Steve, there are ways a Bachelor in Paradise contestant can get paid: per day, per episode and a flat rate. According to Reality Steve, most contestants are paid for each day they film or for each episode they’re in, while more more popular Bachelor and Bachelorette alumni can negotiate a flat rate salary for the whole time they’re on the show.
As for how much Bachelor in Paradise contestants make, Reality Steve reported that in season 1, contestants made between $7,000 to $15,000 total. However, that number has gone up. In an interview on the “Trading Secrets” podcast in May 2021, Dean Unglert, a contestant from The Bachelorette season 13 with Rachel Lindsay, revealed that he was offered $400 per day to star on Bachelor in Paradise season 4.
“They hit me up and they were like, ‘Hey, do you want to do Bachelor in Paradise, this other show that pays $400 a day, and you could be there for up to 30 days,’ something like that,” Dean recalled. “So I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, great. Four hundred bucks a day, 30 days, $12,000, that’s fantastic.” After discussing the offer with his friends, Dean asked ABC for $800 per day before he settled with a salary of $600 per day. Given that Bachelor in Paradise films for around three weeks, the rate would’ve paid Dean around $12,600 if he stayed for the whole time.
“They’re like, ‘Well, you should get more money because you’re kind of like the guy coming off the show… you’re who they want most from your season to go to Paradise, minus like [runner-up] Peter [Kraus], obviously,’” Dean said. “At that point, I was like, out of principle, I just wanted them to pay—it could have been one dollar more—out of principle, I wanted them to pay me more than they were offering everybody else just cause I thought I was hot shit for some reason.”
Jason Tartick, a contestant from The Bachelorette season 14 with Becca Kufrin, also revealed in the same podcast that he was asked to be on Bachelor in Paradise. Though he never starred on the show, he disclosed that he negotiated a $600-per-day salary with a guaranteed $5,000 check if he didn’t make it past the first week.
The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are available to stream on Hulu. Here’s how to watch it for free.
Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman
Buy: ‘Bachelor Nation’ by Amy Kaufman $18
To get more of an inside scoop, check out Los Angeles Times writer Amy Kaufman’s book, Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure, for a deep dive into the Bachelor franchise. The book uncovers the secrets of Bachelor Nation, from how much the Bachelor and the Bachelorette are paid to the rules contestants have to follow, that producers don’t want fans to know. It’s a must-read for any Bachelor Nation member.
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