Nine
With the amount of blood, sweat and tears the contestants pour into their renovations on The Block every year, you might assume they get paid quite well to be on the show.
Well, actually, that’s not the case. Here’s what the Blockheads really get paid.
To compete on The Block, contestants need to leave behind their homes, families and jobs.
When you take into consideration that the competition runs for 12 weeks and involves stressful challenges, tight deadlines and intense labour, it would be fair to assume they get compensated fairly well for that. But, that assumption would be incorrect.
Over the years, past Block contestants have spoken out about the income they received for their time on the beloved reality show.
The amount has varied every year, with 2014 Blockheads Bec and George revealing on their Facebook page that, “as contestants you get paid living expenses whilst filming.”
“This barely covers all the bills for your life you leave behind as well as eating everyday. Yes we can win money and it’s a gamble at auction BUT we also put our lives on hold for six months and work bloody hard for that money,” they shared.
Fast forward to 2022, Sarah-Jane took to Instagram to reveal how much Channel Nine paid them, claiming each contestant received “$100 a day.” This means each couple took home $1400 every week.
Sarah-Jane revealed that she and partner Tom actually drained their savings while on the show.
Though they won $20,000 at auction, they lost a total of $100,000 due to daycare costs for their daughter.
“[After childcare], straight away we were left with $80 combined to cover all of our bills at home — our rates, mortgages, utilities, pay for food for ourselves the whole time, feed and clothe our daughter, just everything,” she said.
2023 contestant Ash also confirmed these numbers, appearing on Triple M Breakfast with Margaux, Marto and Dan and sharing, “You get a little bit of pocket money a day. I think it was around $100 per person per day, which isn’t bad.”
He added, “But you still got to run a house at home. I mean, I actually shut down my whole business while I was down there. You know what I mean?”
If you compare these numbers to what participants on Nine’s Married At First Sight receive, it’s much less. MAFS stars are believed to earn approximately $150 per day, according to former contestant Domenica Calarco.
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