Survivor aired 26 years ago almost to the day with the largest grand prize in television history, for the time. And since then, they’ve only deviated from that ultimate goal twice—once for the 20th anniversary season, Survivor: Winners at War, and now for Survivor 50. But are only the winners of each season walking away with money in their pocket?
The answer is no. While there’s no legal requirement for any reality television show to pay their contestants—as they are technically there by will and are categorized as “participants” rather than “workers,”—as there’s no union specifically to represent them the way SAG-AFTRA represents those appearing on scripted shows, many competition shows offer a guaranteed compensation for contestants based on their time.
So the first person voted out of a season of Survivor is going to receive a significantly lower final sum than the person who placed second, based solely on screentime. And in a 2005 Today breakdown, it was revealed that—in a standard season of Survivor—the first person voted out received $2,500 while the second place finisher walked away with a cool $100,000.
And, in a 2018 TMZ interview with Jonny Fairplay, the infamous Survivor contestant confirmed that those amounts are still likely true today as he says the first person sent home got $12,500 and the runner-up gets $110,000, adjusting with the added payment of a finale reunion appearance fee of $10,000.
This all was in response to Survivor: David vs. Goliath cast members Kara Kay and Alec Merino breaking their non-disclosure agreement by posting a photo together on social media before their episode was announced. And the confidentiality clause of that NDA costs a lot more than any winner of the game could hope to win at a whopping $5 million. So not only do you not get paid the money you won if you break Survivor’s contract, but you also could be taken to court for up to $5 million.
Though Alec was the only player in history to disclose information in a way that CBS felt necessary to take action, so this is a very rare occurrence. And his punishment was being uninvited to the season 37 finale.
Luckily for Survivor contestants, even if they are voted out of the game early—because they are required to be sequestered for the full 26 days of filming, per the confidentiality agreement—they still basically win with a free trip to Fiji where they don’t have to pay for anything out of pocket. So while they do receive money for appearing, they also get an all-expense paid vacation while they’re waiting for a winner to be crowned so they can go home without any spoilers coming out.
So while you’ll only walk away a millionaire if you win, you still get some compensation for your time spent on the island and any follow-up appearances. But it’s worth noting that due to taxes, even the winners don’t truly walk away with that sum of cash. Almost half of it is taken by the IRA as it’s required to report anything above $400 as earned income.
Survivor: Borneo winner Richard Hatch learned this lesson the hard way when he didn’t report his $1 million winnings as income and ended up facing three years federal prison, ultimately paying far more than $1 million in legal fees.
But overall, it’s pretty simple: if you follow the contract you sign with CBS and Survivor as well as the law, you’ll walk away with at least a little bit of compensation for your time on the show.
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