10 Highest Paid Reality TV Stars You Need To Know

Quick Facts

Ever wondered how much your favorite reality TV stars earn for every episode or season? You sure aren’t the only one pondering this. Years before, celebrities such as actors and actresses attained fame and fortune through their works either in movies or series. These days, it is possible to become a celebrity by inviting the camera to record one’s daily routine or life or simply through hosting a show as the case may be. Some of the shows that have recorded massive success and made celebrities very rich include the widely acclaimed Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Real Housewives, The Voice, among others. Thus, here are a few of the highest paid reality TV stars you need to know.

10 Highest Paid Reality TV Stars You Need To Know

1. Simon Cowell

The veteran of reality TV shows is . He has managed to increase his wealth with the smart strategy of having a variety of singing competitions that change the lives of the winners while making him more successful. Simon was born in Lambeth, London to mother, Julie Brett, and father, Eric Selig Philip Cowell, on the 7th of October 1959.

He is now an established talent show judge, talent manager, entertainment consultant, critic, television personality, A&R executive, television producer, and entrepreneur. He is most popular for his involvement in the launching of a myriad of singing talent shows including; American Idol, America’s Got Talent and X-Factor. To this effect, he commands a payout of $95 million for each season he appears as a judge which makes him the highest paid reality TV star. More so, being that he helped to arrive at some of the winners of the different talent competitions that he has been a judge on, including; One Direction, Fifth Harmony and a lot of others, he adds to his net worth which is now estimated to be over $550 million.

2. Ryan Seacrest

has worked his way up in the entertainment industry most importantly with hosting and producing reality TV shows. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Gary Lee Seacrest(a real estate lawyer) and Constance Marie(a homemaker) on the 24th of December 1974. He had his high school education at Dunwoody High School. When he was 16 years of age he gained a scholarship at WSTR (FM), located in Atlanta. The opportunity helped him gain knowledge as an intern.

Simon Cowell’s love and passion for journalism and hosting generally paid off in the end. His notable appearances are as a host on the American Idols and as the producer of the hit reality television series, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. His voice is also heard on the radio where he hosts the American Top 40, and KIIS-FM’s morning radio show On Air with Ryan Seacrest. For his reality TV hosting in recent years, he reportedly earns over $60 million for his work.

3. The Kardashians

The reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians is the brainchild of Entrepreneur, radio personality and host of American Idols, . The show first aired on the 14th of October 2007, starring the Kardashian and Jenner clan including; , (formerly ), , , , Rob Kardashian, , and . Also, other partners or better halves of the stars have also been featured on the show. Though it initially had low reviews from critics due to the message the show was preaching at the time “Famous for Being Famous,” the show, however, received high viewership from the public and as such went on to become one of the longest-running reality TV series in the United States with 15 seasons and counting. More so, the show has been a been able to churn out a lot of really interesting spin-offs including, Kourtney and Khloé Take The Hamptons, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kourtney and Kim Take Miami, Dash Dolls, Rob & Chyna, Khloé & Lamar, and Life of Kylie. Due to the unprecedented success of the show, the Kardashian brand signed a deal with E! worth $40 million in 2018 making them one of the highest paid reality TV stars in the world.

4. Jennifer Lopez

The talented dancer, singer, actress and producer has been in the entertainment business for over 2 decades and has managed to maintain a successful career thus far with the popular triple-threat combination of Singing, dancing and acting. was born in the Bronx to parents, David Lopez and Guadalupe Rodriguez on the 24th of July 1969. As a kid, she excelled at things like arts and sports while struggling with academic work. To keep she and her siblings from trouble and off the streets, her parents made them perform amongst themselves. She soon fell in love with performing and as such desired to pursue a career therein. However, due to her parent’s disapproval, she moved out of their house in pursuit of her dream. Now she can look back and say she made the right choice.

With her success both in movies and acting, she recently took on the role of a judge on the hit reality TV show American Idol where she currently earns $17.5 per season. This figure does well to put her well above her other reality TV stars in terms of the pay she commands.

5. Howard Stern

 was born in Queens, New York, U.S. on the 12th of January, 1954. His parents, Ben Stern and Ray stern are not originally from the United States of America. In fact, they are Jewish with family ties in Austria-Hungary and Poland. Howard Stern has practically been involved with radio hosting right from the start of his career. However he is most popular for his work as a judge on one of the highly viewed reality TV shows, America’s Got Talent where he commands a whopping pay of $15 million per season. In addition to this, he earns big bucks as a host on Sirius with a deal worth $500 million putting him high up as one of the best-paid reality TV host.

6. Christina Aguilera

Breaking into the entertainment industry at the age of 15, Christina was set to emulate the likes of Britany Spears who was already making waves in the teen pop sound before she came on board. With her debut single “Genie In a Bottle”, she made a bold statement of her intention to go the long haul. Fast forward, she has been termed one of the highest selling female artist of all time with a total of five Grammy awards to her name. Though has since slowed down on her music career, she has continued to be in the public eye thanks to the music talent show The Voice.

Due to her resume and status in the entertainment industry, Christina earned an enviable salary of  $12.5 million to judge contestants on the reality TV show. This is speculated to rise to $17 million in the coming years. Nevertheless, with her current payout, she sits pretty well.

7. Adam Levine

Another popular celebrity who has made some big bucks from reality TV shows is . Interestingly just like Christina Aguilera, he is also a judge on the show The Voice.  For his services as a judge, he earns between $10-12 million putting him as the 7th highest paid reality TV stars on this list.

8.  Nene Leakes

Linnethia Monique Johnson was born in Queens on the 13th of December 1967 as one of 5 kids born into her family. She wasn’t born into a wealthy home and due to the financial situation in her family, she and one of her brothers were sent to live with one of her aunties in Anthen Georgia, while the rest stayed back with their parents. With enough determination and drive, she was able to complete her education at Clarke Central High School before moving on to Morris Brown College for further formal studies.

Today, Nene Leakes as she is more famously known has broken new frontiers and made her life better. One means through which she attained fame was with her appearance on the reality TV show, The Real Housewives Of Atlanta where she gets paid handsomely to the tune of $1 million dollars, making her one of the highest paid housewife and reality TV stars in the world.

9. Teresa Giudice 

Teresa Giudice nee Gorga was born in Paterson, New Jersey on the 18th of May 1972. Her parents who are originally from Sala Consilina in Italy migrated to the United States in search for greener pastures. She has just one brother named Giuseppe “Joey” Gorga and they were both groomed in the Catholic faith. In terms of her education, Teresa graduated from Berkely College with a degree in fashion marketing. Her breakthrough came in 2009 after she was featured as a recurring cast member on the popular reality TV show The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Due to this gig, she gets paid $650,000 per season she happens to be a part of. More so, apart from her huge pay, she is entitled to wonderful bonuses. This thus puts her as one of the highest paid reality TV stars.

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10. Snooki  

Nicole Elizabeth LaValle, popularly known as Snooki was born in Santiago, Chile on the 23rd of November, 1987. At just six months she was adopted by her foster parents. Her adoptive father worked as an auto-salvage supervisor and as a volunteer firefighter, while her mother worked as an office manager. Though she was born in Chile, she got to know that she was part Jewish, East Asian, Middle Eastern, Iberian American, South Asian, and Romanian; with further roots in Spain, Macedonia, Slovakia, North Western Croatia, and Russia. Snooki first gained fame when she was a part of the reality tv series, Jersey Shore. This series was spun into a new show Known as Snooki & JWOWW. After the first season was released on MTV, it received considerable public interest enough to order in 4 more seasons. Due to her popularity, and star power, Snookie was paid a whopping $175,00 per episode. No doubt, this figure secured her a spot on our list of the highest paid reality TV star.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.