WITH their glossy tans, perfectly blown-out hair and veneer teeth, it would be hard to imagine that Towie and Geordie Shore stars are ever strapped for cash.
But the harsh reality is that these TV stars often face low pay, long hours and constant pressure to look perfect, which in turn leaves them skint.
Over the years more and more reality TV shows have popped up, left, right and centre.
With each one comes a new set of "perfect people" who's lives seem glamourous and filled with beauty treatments and exotic holidays.
But the truth is, they are often faced with crippling debt as they are not paid enough to fund their luxury lifestyles.
Here we take at look at the OG Towie and Geordie Shore stars who have spilled the beans on the how much they were REALLY paid for these shows.
MINIMUM WAGE
Reality TV fans may think that the stars get paid a fortune, but Towie's Chloe Brockett revealed at one point she was only paid minimum wage.
Despite fans thinking that the cast are rich, she told The Sun that the salaries are often low.
Chloe said: “It (Towie) was my whole life. You get paid per day, max three days a week. It started on £90, then £250 and then £400.
“They film for 22 weeks a year. That’s £22,000 a year. I was getting minimum wage to be abused.
“I had bills to pay, rent to sort, I’d got a Porsche to fit in with the Towie image.”
Like a lot of reality stars who find they are not making enough money and have bills piling up, Chloe turned to OnlyFans.
“Of course it wasn’t my goal. Who sits in school and goes, ‘I know, I want to do OnlyFans’. I looked down on it," she told us.
“Now I would never judge anyone for what they do to pay the bills.
“Lingerie is absolutely as far as I go. OnlyFans saved me — I am earning a good living now.”
UNPAID WORK
While Chloe was facing low pay on Towie, Holly Hagan revealed that for the first three series of Geordie Shore she wasn't paid at all.
When the hit MTV series kicked off in 2011, along with Holly, the world was introduced to stars like Vicky Pattison, Charlotte Crosby and Gaz Beadle.
However, it has been revealed that in the early days of Geordie Shore the cast were appearing on the show for free.
"This industry can be ruthless," Holly told fans in an Instagram Q&A.
"We were very naive to begin with, working for FREE for three seasons, quitting stable jobs and having no income for a long time. We're 10 years into the job now we know our worth and what we're capable of."
Holly revealed she had to borrow money from her mum just to get by before MTV stepped in and started paying the cast.
She said: "We all had to have a sit down with MTV to tell them how much we were struggling (only some of us though as the popular cast mates were earning from club appearances etc).
"They then decided to pay us a small fee to help us get by."
BOYS EARNING MORE THAN GIRLS
Once they did start get paid, the Geordie Shore lads were apparently much better off.
OG cast member Sophie Kasaei told the False Economy podcast."The boys were earning quite a lot of money from cash jobs, doing things like one hour of photos with fans and earning thousands and they were killing it.
"But us girls were in big financial difficulty. There was no social media so we couldn’t make money from that - we had nothing.
“We struggled for a while, and got credit cards and all that kind of thing.
"But things did change and then the girls started to make some money.”
Opening up her time on the show in the early days, she said: "When we first started the show we got absolutely nothing.
“The most we ever got was £1000 a month and we couldn’t survive on that, obviously after tax as well."
Sophie also addressed the false reality that the cast were all "loaded" back then.
"What makes it worse is even though I had £5 in the bank everyone watching me thinks I am a multimillionaire right now and they think I’m loaded and have everything they ever wanted but I’m probably a lot more skint than the local Joe Bloggs down the street," she revealed.
“No one would know until I’ve told you now, and we need to be more open about this because people think they can do reality shows and make so much money but it’s tough."
LOW PAY, LONG HOURS
Towie legend Frankie Essex previously revealed how she was paid just £50 a day to appear on the show - despite sometimes filming for over 12 hours.
“It looks more glamorous than you think,” Frankie told Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast.
“We’d get £50 a day if we filmed and if you didn't film, you didn't get paid.
“I think I was on call for six weeks. So, we’d get a text message at between 7pm and 11pm at night saying, ‘You've got filming tomorrow, be [at this nightclub] at 10 o’clock in the morning on a Sunday.’
“Sometimes you'd be on set until 4am.”
CHEAP ISLAND
It's not just Towie and Geordie Shore stars who feel the pinch when it comes to perusing their reality TV dream.
Speaking on the same podcast as Frankie, Dr Alex George said Love Island contestants were paid even less than Towie.
“That's more than Love Island," he said in response to Frankie;s big reveal about wages.
"We had a travel expense of £200 a week.”
This was echoed by 2022 Islander Jake Cornish.
“The money is bad for Love Island, first time was £375 quid a week. You earn your money off Love Island for your brand deals," he told the TikTok podcast Offline.
Jake, who appeared on Love Island in 2021 and again on the All Stars last year, revealed that Islanders took home a maximum of £3,000 if they enter on day one and make it to the final.
BUDGET WEDDING
Married At First Sight Australia is the biggest version of the show in the world, so you would think its stars would get paid accordingly.
However, despite its popularity, many cast members face financial challenges once filming ends.
A former cast member recently spilled the beans on the hardship they faced once the show wrapped.
“Nothing could prepare me for what I had signed up for, and while you do get sucked in by the glitz and glamour, the remuneration is appalling," the anonymous source told Yahoo.
"You get $150 a day plus a $128 food allowance for the week. All up you get $1,178.
"The way we are paid as 'contributors' and not as a proper job is how they can pay you so little.”
Due to the low pay, it was reported that some former MAFS stars have found themselves struggling financially and having to return to their full-time jobs after the show ends.
So if anyone thinking of heading for the bright lights of reality TV, they might want to make sure they have some money saved up beforehand.
