Dancing With the Stars celebrities are reportedly paid on a sliding scale that rewards every week they survive. ABC has never published the numbers, but Variety reported in 2019, citing multiple sources, that contestants receive $125,000 for the rehearsal period and their first two weeks on air, then earn additional fees each week after that. Current reporting puts the most a finalist can collect at roughly $295,000 to $360,000, and Season 27 champion Bobby Bones has said he made “close to $400,000.”
The short version:
- Guaranteed money: Celebrities reportedly receive $125,000 up front, which covers rehearsals and the first two weeks of the competition, so even the first star sent home leaves with a six figure check.
- The weekly ladder: Reported bonuses start at $10,000 a week in Weeks 3 and 4 and climb to $50,000 each for the semifinal and the finale.
- The ceiling: Variety’s sources put the cap at $295,000 in 2019. A 2026 report from the Daily Express says a celebrity who reaches the finale can collect roughly $360,000 under the current structure.
- No cash prize: The Mirrorball winner reportedly earns the same finale payment as the other finalists. Two-time champion pro Jenna Johnson has said the winning couple gets “a cute trophy together.”
- The pros earn far less: Professional dancers reportedly start around $1,200 to $1,600 an episode, with veterans near $5,000, according to Us Weekly and other outlets.
- Nothing is official: ABC has not confirmed any of these figures, and individual contracts can differ.
How Much Do Dancing With the Stars Celebrities Get Paid?
A celebrity on Dancing With the Stars reportedly starts with a guaranteed $125,000. That figure first surfaced widely in Variety’s August 2019 report on the Season 28 cast, which said the payment covers “the show’s rehearsal period and their first two weeks on the air.” Everything a star earns after that depends on how long the couple survives the judges’ scores and the viewer vote.
The $125,000 figure has held up across more than a decade of reporting. On an April 18, 2006, episode of The Howard Stern Show, Beth Stern said she was guaranteed $125,000 just for appearing in the show’s third season, and that her earnings could more than double if she lasted, according to Project Casting. The same base amount appears in an August 2026 report from the Daily Express, which cited a source familiar with the show’s compensation structure ahead of Season 35.
That guarantee matters because the show front loads the work. Celebrities rehearse for weeks before the premiere, and pro Rylee Arnold described daily four hour rehearsals on a September 2024 podcast, as quoted by E! News. A star who is voted out early has still put in that training time, and the base payment reflects it.
Key point: Every figure in this guide comes from outside reporting or personal accounts. E! News notes that “ABC has not publicly confirmed any of these figures,” and the Daily Express adds that individual contracts may differ.
How Does the DWTS Weekly Pay Ladder Work?
After the guaranteed period ends, celebrities reportedly earn an extra payment for each week they stay in the competition. The amounts rise as the field gets smaller, which gives every couple a financial reason to fight for another week. The Daily Express and Parade have described the same structure in their recent reporting.
Here is the reported ladder for the current format, according to the Daily Express in August 2026:
- Weeks 1 and 2: Covered by the $125,000 base payment, along with the rehearsal period before the premiere.
- Weeks 3 and 4: An additional $10,000 for each week.
- Week 5: An additional $15,000.
- Weeks 6 and 7: An additional $20,000 for each week.
- Weeks 8 and 9: An additional $30,000 for each week.
- Semifinal and finale: An additional $50,000 for each stage.
Added together, those reported amounts come to about $360,000 for a celebrity who survives an 11 week season. Good Housekeeping reached the same total in its Season 34 explainer, while noting that the numbers come from outside reporting.
The ladder has changed over time. Us Weekly reported that the 2010 scale paid $10,000 per episode for Weeks 3 and 4, $20,000 for Weeks 5 and 6, $30,000 for Weeks 7 and 8, and $50,000 for the final two weeks. That older scale could add up to $345,000 for a finalist.
Bobby Bones described a very similar staircase from his own season. “Like first episode, no money, second episode, $10,000. I think it’s like, $10,000, $10,000, $20,000. It ends up being $50,000 an episode, if you last,” he said on the September 15, 2025, episode of Jason Tartick’s Trading Secrets podcast, as reported by E! News.
What Is the Most a DWTS Celebrity Can Earn?
The reported maximum sits somewhere between $295,000 and roughly $400,000, depending on the season and the contract. Variety’s 2019 sources said the cap for Season 28 was $295,000, down from as much as $345,000 in earlier seasons. Newer reporting and a champion’s own account suggest the top end has since moved higher.
Variety framed the 2019 cap as a cut. “Contestants on previous seasons could, according to reports at the time, make as much as $345,000, but potential earnings this season will fall short of that number,” the outlet wrote. TV Insider repeated the $295,000 figure when Hannah Brown won Season 28 that November.
The firmest public numbers come from people who were actually paid. Bones, who won Season 27 with Sharna Burgess in 2018, said his base salary was about $110,000 and that he “ended up making like close to $400,000 from that show.” He added that the exposure led to other work worth “millions of dollars again,” including his National Geographic series Breaking Bobby Bones.
Bindi Irwin’s pay became part of a court record. Because she was 17 when she competed in Season 21, her contract had to be approved by a Los Angeles court, and the approval was delayed until the court had proof that her late father, Steve Irwin, was giving up any rights to her earnings. TMZ reported in December 2015 that the approved contract put her total haul for winning at “well over $350k.”
“That show pays okay. … So I ended up making like close to $400,000 from that show. So financially, pretty good.”
Bobby Bones, on Trading Secrets, via E! News
Does the Dancing With the Stars Winner Get Prize Money?
No, there is no separate cash prize for winning. The champion couple takes home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, and the celebrity reportedly receives the same finale payment as every other star who reaches the last episode. The financial reward comes from lasting the full season.
Jenna Johnson, who won Season 26 with Adam Rippon and Season 33 with Joey Graziadei, explained the setup on a June 2025 episode of The Morning After podcast. “If you make it all the way to the end, you’re getting paid the whole season, which is amazing, and you get a bonus on top of that for making it to the finale,” she said, as quoted by E! News.
“If you win, it’s not like you win a $1 million and split it with your partner. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.”
Jenna Johnson, on The Morning After, via E! News
The Daily Express put it the same way in 2026, reporting that “a winner does not necessarily earn more from the show than the contestants finishing directly behind them.” TV Insider made the same point in 2019, noting that Hannah Brown would not earn a bigger check than fellow finalists Kel Mitchell, Ally Brooke, and Lauren Alaina.
How Much Do the DWTS Pro Dancers Make?
Professional dancers reportedly earn much less than the celebrities they train. Us Weekly reported that new pros start at about $1,200 per episode and that returning pros make closer to $5,000 an episode. Parade has reported a starting rate of $1,600 and a veteran rate as high as $5,200, with a reported cap of about $100,000 a season.
Those numbers have never been confirmed by ABC, and they vary with seniority. Cosmopolitan worked out that a top pro earning about $5,000 an episode across a 10 to 15 episode season would make roughly $50,000 to $75,000. Johnson has said pay is not uniform, telling The Morning After, “I think there’s different contracts though.”
Pros also depend on their partner’s run. Johnson said pros are “guaranteed until a certain amount of weeks,” which means an early exit does not leave them with nothing. EntertainmentNow reported in September 2026 that pros are paid weekly and stop being paid once they and their celebrity are eliminated.
That structure explains why pro partners often build income away from the ballroom. Cosmopolitan noted that many pros turn their exposure into influencer work, which adds income beyond the weekly check from the show.
How Much Do DWTS Troupe Dancers Make?
Troupe dancers, who perform in group numbers but are not paired with a celebrity, reportedly earn a fraction of pro pay. Lindsay Arnold, who was moved from pro to troupe after her first season, said her salary was cut “more than half.” She described the troupe rate as hard to live on when the show runs only one season a year.
Arnold made the comments on a January 2022 episode of Trading Secrets, as reported by Us Weekly. “I was given the boot down to troupe for four or five seasons,” she said. She later won Season 25 as a pro with DeMarcus Ware.
“Living in L.A., paying rent, buying food there, paying for gas, like, you’d be really tight.”
Lindsay Arnold, on troupe pay with one season a year, via Us Weekly
EntertainmentNow reported that troupe members are on call around the clock and that their contracts do not extend beyond one season. The upside is promotion. For Season 35, Johnson’s niece Hailey Bills was promoted from the troupe to a full time pro and paired with Sarah Jane Nader, according to Cosmopolitan.
How Much Do the DWTS Hosts and Judges Make?
Host and judge salaries are the least documented part of the show’s payroll. The most repeated host figure is that original host Tom Bergeron earned about $150,000 per episode, or roughly $1.5 million to $1.8 million a season, as reported by Us Weekly and Cosmopolitan. Pay for current hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough has not been made public.
Cosmopolitan attributes the Bergeron figure to Celebrity Net Worth, so treat it as an estimate rather than a contract detail. Us Weekly also notes that Tyra Banks’s pay was never revealed during her run as host from Season 29 through Season 31.
Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough have never disclosed their pay. StyleCaster and Project Casting cite an estimated range of $250,000 to $1.2 million a season, with The Sun reporting that judges earned about $250,000 a season in the show’s early years. We found no credible current figure for any judge as of October 2026.
Important: Host and judge numbers come from estimates and secondhand reports. They are useful for scale, but none has been confirmed by ABC or the people involved.
Can DWTS Celebrities Negotiate Their Pay?
Some negotiation appears to be possible, mainly at signing. Season 29 champion Kaitlyn Bristowe said on Trading Secrets that “your signing bonus, I think you can negotiate a bit,” according to Cosmopolitan. The Daily Express also reported in 2026 that some stars could negotiate additional terms before joining the cast.
The weekly ladder itself seems to be standard. Parade has reported that celebrities make the same amount no matter how famous they are, and the accounts from Bones and Johnson describe a shared structure that rewards time on the show. Bones’s lower base of about $110,000 shows that the guaranteed amount has not been identical in every season.
The job also comes with demands that go beyond pay. Rylee Arnold has described a weekly cycle of five straight rehearsal days, camera blocking on Monday, and a live show on Tuesday, and Jenna Johnson has said producers keep pairings secret even from the pros until they meet live, according to E! News. Our breakdown of the reality TV contract details cast members actually sign covers the confidentiality and filming clauses that are common across the genre.
Our Take: Why DWTS Pays Better Than Most Reality TV
Dancing With the Stars pays its celebrities far more than most reality competitions pay their contestants, and the reason is who it casts. The show needs recognizable names, and recognizable names have agents, other jobs, and leverage. A guaranteed $125,000 is the price of booking a known actor, athlete, or musician for months of rehearsal.
Dating and social competition shows usually work with unknowns, and their pay reflects that. Our guide to what Bachelor series contestants get paid shows how much smaller those checks are, and our look at how much The Traitors contestants get paid covers a show that mixes celebrities and reality veterans. Several Season 35 celebrities, including Maura Higgins and Tyler Cameron, came to the ballroom from those kinds of shows.
The gap between the celebrities and the people who teach them is the clearest pattern in the reporting. A finalist can reportedly earn more than $300,000, while a veteran pro may earn a fraction of that for the same weeks of rehearsal and performance. For how that compares with the people running other franchises, our breakdown of how much reality TV hosts are paid compared to contestants puts those salary gaps side by side.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do DWTS celebrities get paid per week?
Celebrities reportedly receive $125,000 for rehearsals and the first two weeks, then an extra $10,000 to $50,000 for each week after that. The Daily Express reported in 2026 that the weekly bonus rises from $10,000 in Weeks 3 and 4 to $50,000 for the semifinal and finale. ABC has not confirmed the scale.
Does the first celebrity eliminated from DWTS still get paid?
Yes, according to reports. The $125,000 base payment reportedly covers the rehearsal period and the first two weeks of the competition, so a star who leaves early still receives it. Bobby Bones described a slightly lower base of about $110,000 for his 2018 season.
How much did Bobby Bones make on Dancing With the Stars?
Bobby Bones said he made “close to $400,000” from Season 27, which he won with Sharna Burgess in 2018. He shared the figure on Jason Tartick’s Trading Secrets podcast in September 2025, as reported by E! News. He said his base salary was about $110,000.
Do DWTS pros get paid more if they win?
Not much more, according to Jenna Johnson. She said pros who reach the finale are paid for the whole season and receive a finale bonus, but there is no large prize for winning. “You’re just getting a cute trophy together,” she said on The Morning After podcast in 2025.
How much do Dancing With the Stars judges make?
Judge salaries have never been disclosed. Outlets including StyleCaster and Project Casting cite an estimated range of $250,000 to $1.2 million a season, based partly on early reporting from The Sun. Treat that range as an estimate, since none of the judges or ABC has confirmed it.
