I have always been really curious about exactly how much the cast of Vanderpump Rules is paid—if anything. We all know Lisa Vanderpump is a shrewd businesswoman and I recall on the finale last season some of the cast lamenting about how much Lisa is making off of their SWAG and recall Tom Sandoval commenting on how he did not care about being late to the photo shoot since he was not being paid.
So I had an inkling that there may be a little tension about pay. And thank you TMZ for getting the answer!
They claim this “Several sources connected to the show tell us anyone NOT named Lisa Vanderpump only made $5K for the WHOLE first season — but when ratings soared they all went looking for raises.”
I believe it.
“We’re told the cast wanted 2 things: more money and first class seats on flights. Bravo budged on the cheddar … handing them each roughly $3K/episode for Season 2, and $5K/episode for Season 3.”
The show is a double-edged sword for Bravo. The huge success has brought them fame and the ability to demand fortune and it certainly affords them other job opportunities besides SUR waiter, but if they leave the show then it all falls apart. We know none of them “need” this job at this point so it’s a bit weird for us viewers to pretend that they do.
TMZ claims that the cast thinks Bravo is worried about them losing their “working class charm”. And that is a very valid fear. It will be interesting to see how much longer this show can handle it’s own success. Lisa better take some lessons from Andy Cohen and learn how to bring on new characters so the originals always feel their jobs are in jeopardy.
Lisa Vanderpump and Scheana Marie recently weighed in to refute this claim…saying the cast makes ‘way more’.
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Photo Source: Bravo