The 17th season of strictly come dancing amongst us and is as popular as ever! When the show first started in 2004, it was not half as popular has it has become today. You may know all the previous winners, but do you know how much the celebrities, professional dancers and judges earn to appear on the program? In this article, we will be looking at what the judges and contestants earn for partaking in the Strictly Come Dancing over the years. To add this, a recent study by Betway analyses each Strictly contestant over the last 16 series (see infographic below).
Celebrities
According to various reports, each celebrity who signs up for Strictly stand to take home as much as £25,000. That amount however increases to £40,000 for celebrities who remain on the dancing floor until October.
Celebrities who get to the quarter finals of strictly come dancing get extra £20,000 on top of that, seeingsemifinals take home as much as £75,000 and the eventual winners attaining a whopping £100k! Celebrities however earn more money by going on the live tours. The live tours often take place in the spring of the year after the series.
Typically, there have been celebrities in the press who have complained about the pay package. One of them being Spice Girl Mel C. She was recently quoted by Daily Star as saying; “Strictly is really the only one of those shows that I would consider. I have had a meeting with them. They ask me every year to do it, “The problem is if you do Strictly it’s so high profile and you’ll find yourself in the sidebar of shame every day. And the money’s s***!”.
Now that we have an idea of how much the celebrities earn, but do the professionals get as much as the celebrities? The answer is No. According to a report by the Sun, each professional who signs up to partake in strictly come dancing get around £30,000 for each of the series. The discrepancy in appearance fee has led to some of the professionals feeling cheated. And one can hardly fault them. Most of the professional dancers spend as much as 14 hours a day training their partners while the celebrities are known to be responsible for choreographing the weekly group dances – and still earn more!
Back in 2012, there were outcries from the professionals who wanted an increase on their pay packages but while the judges were given a pay boost of £20,000 each, the dancers saw an additional £500 added to their pay cheques. In 2017 ballroom dancer Brendan Cole in an interview he granted to Now magazine was quoted to have said; “My money from Strictly just about pays the bills. I don’t have a car. I would like to get one but until then I’m on the Tube. I don’t even own my house. I can’t afford it. I rent where I live.”
JudgeBruno Tonioli has told the celebrities who are complaining about the pay; “Those are the terms of the negotiations. If you don’t like it, stop moaning and f**k off!”. To further show the discrepancies in the pay packages, reports have it that likes of Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli take home as much £110,000 for every season of the series. Len Goodman who only joined the panel in 2016 is said to make as much as £120,000. What Shirley Ballas who also recently joined the show earns is however still unknown.
