Spilling the salary tea! Kaitlyn Bristowe dropped details of her reality TV contracts — including how much she was offered to be the Bachelorette — during a candid conversation with Jason Tartick.
Bristowe, 37, told her fiancé during part one of her appearance on his “Trading Secrets” podcast that she was living off of the $1,500 ABC gave her between season 19 of The Bachelor and season 11 of The Bachelorette in 2015 when negotiating her gig as the potential star. (Fans will recall Britt Nilsson was also picked and the contestants voted for the lead on night 1.)
“I think they offered me $40,000. You’d think I’d be like, ‘Jackpot! Sign me up!’” Bristowe quipped.
The “Off the Vine” podcast host, however, was advised to hire an entertainment lawyer, who her stepdad helped her pay “an upfront retainer of five grand.”
“He changed a lot and negotiated my contract big time for me,” she continued. “One of the executive producers said to me, ‘You got an entertainment lawyer, and you’re asking for this amount of money? I’m sorry. I thought this is about love for you.’ F—k off! It’s about love and money, OK? They go hand in hand for me right now. Because they said you’re going against Britt, I was like, ‘I’m not doing it.’ And then I said, ‘I’ll only do it if you paid me as much as you paid Chris Soules.’ I said I wanted to make the same as he did.”
In the past, Bachelors have revealed that they were offered $75,000 to $100,000 to hand out roses.
While Bristowe was “worried” that she would lose the gig to Nelson, she added: “But I had also negotiated that if it was her I still got money.”
As Bachelor Nation knows, Bristowe was named the star and ended up engaged to Shawn Booth. The twosome split in 2018 — but she still has the Neil Lane engagement ring as they lasted more than two years.
“Neil Lane has first rights of buying it back,” she told Tartick, adding that she’d estimate she could sell the ring for $30,000 if she had permission.
Bristowe went on to appear on — and win — Dancing With the Stars in 2020.
“You get a bonus every week that you make it,” she said of the DWTS salaries, claiming that the runner-ups make the same as the winner. “The final four are in the final episode, they all get paid the same. … But your signing bonus, I think you can negotiate a bit, like, to sign to say you’re going on the show.”
She added that she was told the coveted mirrorball trophy cost $10,000 to make.
When it comes to her “most lucrative” gig, however, Bristowe named cohosting seasons 17 and 18 of The Bachelorette after Chris Harrison’s exit — despite her and Tayshia Adams being named “guests” in the credits.
“They didn’t want to pass what a host would make,” she said. “I think we got a little more [for Michelle Young’s season than Katie Thurston’s season].”
In 2022, ABC named Jesse Palmer the permanent host of The Bachelor franchise.
