Reality Show Award Money: Rank ‘Survivor,’ ‘Challenge,’ More

Roll in the dough! Reality TV shows it can be difficult, awkward and time-consuming, but for many contestants, it’s more than worth it based on the prize money they can win at the end.

Johnny “Bananas” Devenanziowhich has winning seven seasons of MTVs The Challengehas taken home more than $1.2 million in winnings over the years. When it comes to individual season wins, The Challengehas varied in what the top contestant takes home, with the grand prize totaling $900,000, split between two people for 2021. The Challenge: Double Agents. For his milestone 40th season, The Challenge: Battle of the Periods increasing the prize to $1 million.

Baking shows also have a wide variety of seed money, with some series giving the champion a cake stand and others awarding the best chef a job and a restaurant salary. Talent competitions, however, have the most prize inconsistencies.

For years, The Voice coaches have been vocal about how the winners of the singing competition they don’t seem to get the proper support from the record label that signs them as part of their winner’s compensation package.

“We’re working with these artists and giving them this great workshop and getting them to the end of the show, and I think the work we’re doing on the show is amazing,” former coach Adam Levine say reporters at a press conference for The Voicethe season finale in December 2017. “We’re giving these guys this amazing platform and this very rare thing, a lot of exposure and airtime. Once we pass the torch, it’s the record label that completely destroys that.”

Scroll down to see the reality show’s award numbers from worst to best: