Do “Survivor ”Contestants Get Paid? All About the Show's Long-Standing Prize (and the Money for Losing Players!)
- - Do “Survivor ”Contestants Get Paid? All About the Show's Long-Standing Prize (and the Money for Losing Players!)
Caroline Blair, Nicole PomaricoDecember 18, 2025 at 4:00 AM
0
Robert Voets/CBS
The Contestants of the CBS Original Series 'Survivor' Season 49. -
Season 49 of Survivor came to an end on Dec. 17
The winner took home the $1 million prize fund
All the contestants reportedly receive a paycheck depending on their performance on the reality TV show
Another season of Survivor has come to an end, and with it, the season 49 winner has been crowned.
The hit reality TV competition show, which began airing on CBS in 2000, has challenged contestants to live in deserted circumstances while competing in various challenges, forming alliances and voting out competitors. Ever since the series launched, it has awarded the winner the title of Sole Survivor and $1 million (except for season 40, in which the winner received a whopping $2 million).
While only one person gets to take home the $1 million grand prize at the end of each season, the remainder of the contestants reportedly also receive some amount of money depending on how well they did in the competition.
"I think people are always surprised to learn that we do earn money,” Corinne Kaplan, who played on seasons 17 and 26, said in a September 2021 episode of the Trading Secrets podcast. “The same pot of money exists no matter how many players there are.” CBS did not respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment.
So, how much money have the past winners and contestants on Survivor won? Here's everything to know about what the Survivor winner gets.
What does the winner of Survivor get?
Robert Voets/CBS via Getty
Eva Erickson, Star Toomey, Mary Zheng, and David Kinne on Survivor: Fiji.
Ever since Survivor premiered in 2000, the contestants have competed to win the $1 million grand prize and the title of Sole Survivor.
However, the winner doesn't get to pocket the entire $1 million, since thousands of dollars have to go to federal and state taxes. The total amount of money a winner receives depends on their state's income taxes.
It's crucial that the winner pay the taxes, as season 1 winner Richard Hatch spent nearly three years in federal prison for not paying up. He told PEOPLE in April 2023 that legal fees and missed work "more than wiped out the money."
As inflation has increased over the years, some viewers have questioned why the prize fund hasn't proportionally increased.
June Deery, professor of communication and media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, spoke about the fund to The Hollywood Reporter in February 2025, saying, "The coveted commodity on most reality shows is not only the prize but the media exposure. Even if participants aren’t catapulted into A-list celebrityhood, the attention capital they accumulate on TV can be monetized online — from pitching sponsors or regular YouTube ads.”
Has Survivor ever increased the prize fund?
Robert Voets/CBS via Getty
Jeff Probst hosts Survivor: Winners at War.
The $1 million prize fund has stayed the same since season 1 in 2000. However, the CBS show doubled the jackpot to $2 million once to celebrate the 40th season, Survivor: Winners at War, in 2020. The season featured 20 winners from past seasons of Survivor to compete for the highest prize fund in history. Tony Vlachos was named the winner.
"The $2 million prize was all CBS," host Jeff Probst told Entertainment Weekly in January 2020. "The truth is, Kelly Kahl is the guy at CBS who back in season 2 moved Survivor to go up against Friends. And we beat Friends in the ratings and his career was really made in that moment."
Probst continued, "He's been invested in Survivor forever. And he has given us free rein to do what we want for a long time. And this season he said, 'Can you try to make winners happen? And can we give them a $2 million prize?' "
How much do the second and third-place finishers get?
Robert Voets/CBS
David Kinne, Eva Erickson, Charity Nelms, Star Toomey, and Mary Zhen on 'Survivor'
Even though they couldn't snag the title of Sole Survivor, contestants who get second and third place also walk away with a significant amount of money.
The runner-up receives $100,000 and the third place finisher gets $85,000, according to Today. Kaplan confirmed the prize amounts during a 2021 appearance on the Trading Secrets podcast.
Do all Survivor contestants get paid?
Robert Voets/CBS via Getty
Chrissy Sarnowsky, Star Toomey, Mitch Guerra, Joe Hunter, Saiounia "Sai" Hughley and Eva Erickson on Survivor: Fiji.
Every contestant who has appeared on Survivor has reportedly been paid some amount of money for their time.
Kaplan claimed on her Trading Secrets podcast appearance that the amount of money a contestant wins depends on how they placed and how many people are competing on a certain season.
According to Kaplan, "the same pot of money exists no matter how many players there are." So if there are more contestants in a season, then each person gets less money. The sooner the contestants get eliminated, the less money they take home. (Season 50 will feature the largest group of contestants ever at 24.)
"So, what happens is, roughly, the first person voted out makes like $2,500, [and] it goes up very incrementally," Kaplan claimed. "Those people only make a few thousand, and there's a couple hundred [dollars] difference between them."
However, once there are enough people eliminated and people qualify to be members of the jury, their payout "starts going up by $10K," according to Kaplan.
"It works backwards," she said, claiming that each person on the jury makes $10,000 less than the contestant who made it one place ahead of them (excluding the winner).
Did contestants get paid to appear on the live reunion?
CBS via Getty
Jeanine Zheng, James Jones, Noelle Lambert, Sami Layadi, Cody Assenmacher, and Karla Cruz Godoy on Survivor: Mana Island.
For several years, Survivor held a live reunion after the season finale. The special episode was paused ahead of season 40 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
While the live reunion existed, it was another opportunity for every contestant to take home more money. Kaplan claimed that regardless of where a contestant finished in the season, everyone was offered $10,000 to participate in the reunion.
Kaplan claimed, "The reason that that ticket is so high is because most people, if they were wronged on the show or whatever, if there wasn’t a big ticket attached to it, you might just be like. 'F--- it I’m not going,' so they make that very high."
What was the Sia Prize?
Neil Jacobs/CBS via Getty
Tai Trang is presented with a gift from recording artist Sia during the live reunion show.
Like many Survivor fans, singer Sia hasn't always been thrilled by who won the reality TV show. The superfan decided to take matters into her own hands in 2016 when she gave Tai Trang $50,000 of her own money after he didn’t win season 32. She then decided to continue giving money to her favorite contestants, nicknaming the award the “Sia Prize.”
The award continued for eight years and 14 seasons, during which time she gave a total sum of over $1 million to her favorite contestants. However, Probst announced in 2024 that the Sia Prize would end after season 46.
"After eight years, 14 seasons, 19 players and over $1,000,000 awarded, Survivor is officially bringing the Sia Prize to a triumphant end!” he posted to his Instagram Stories in May 2024. “So it is with tremendous gratitude and admiration to Sia that we bring to a close one of the most unique relationships a TV show could ever have with a pop star of Sia’s global wattage.”
Among the special Sia Prize winners included seven players to whom she gave $100,000 — including Rick Devens (season 38), Elaine Stott (39), Janet Carbin (39), Drea Wheeler (42), Jesse Lopez (43), Carolyn Wiger (44) and Katurah Topps (45).
The other 11 contestants who won the coveted money were Donathan Hurley (36), Davie Rickenbacker (37), Aurora McCreary (38), Joe Anglim (38), Jamal Shipman (39), Owen Knight (43), Ryan Medrano (43), Lauren Harpe (44), Carson Garrett (44), Jake O’ Kane (45) and Kaleb Gebrewold (45).
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
