Reality TV Rich List
29 May 2009
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Proving that there really is life after Reality TV, the 25 highest earning reality alumni are announced today, with pop superstars Girls Aloud topping the chart. The first ever Reality TV Rich List reveals the stars who cashed in on their notoriety and reaped the biggest financial rewards since launching their careers on reality shows.
The top five includes TV talent show winners Will Young and Leona Lewis, Big Brother’s most famous face, Jade Goody, and TV golden girl Myleene Klass.
The research was conducted exclusively for Current TV by an established anonymous compiler, to coincide with their season Desperately Seeking Fame, which airs on Friday 29th May at 10pm.
Examining the finances of stars who had made their names on reality TV, the list was compiled after discussions with talent agents, production companies, accountants and journalists, and is inclusive of newspaper and magazine fee based interviews, follow up TV shows, tours, book deals, personal appearance fees, and other brand affiliations.
The chart excluded ‘celebrity’ based reality shows, and focused on the TV series that champion unknown personalities, such as Big Brother, Popstars, Pop Idol, X Factor, Survivor, Fame Academy, Shipwrecked, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria and Any Dream Will Do?
Girl group sensation Girls Aloud are deemed most successful in the monetary stakes, earning a staggering £25 million in the seven years since they shot to stardom on ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals. The five member girl group, Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, are followed by Pop Idol winner turned Brit Award nominated soloist Will Young, with £12.5 million, and X Factor superstar Leona Lewis, who in less than three years has accumulated £10 million, having amassed music sales on both sides of the Atlantic.
While most of the list’s entrants have spawned from ‘talent’ based programmes that promise contestants record contracts or stage roles (from Simon Cowell’s blockbuster entertainment formats to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV/theatre collaborations), a select few from the Big Brother contingent have avoided the road back to obscurity that so many of their counterparts have found themselves on.
The inimitable Jade Goody, who epitomised the ‘ordinary girl done good’ is highest placed at number four, having transformed a Summer stint as a house mate into an enviable media career, including four TV series, three autobiographies and even a perfume in her name.
Other Big Brother stars who shunned short lived celebrity in favour of capital gain include original winner Craig Phillips, who features at number eight, with £5 million. He is followed by series two winner Brian Dowling (number 12 with £2.5 million), Celebrity Big Brother’s non celebrity Chantelle Houghton (number 18 with £1 million) and series three victor turned respected DJ Kate Lawler (number 24 with £700,000).
Meanwhile, Big Brothers and X Factors aside, some of the Rich List’s top financial recipients hail from the days of the docu-soap. Jane McDonald, who won over the nation as a humble cruise ship singer on The Cruise, has since enjoyed numerous album releases and a stint on chat show Loose Women, raking in £3.5 million to emerge at number ten in the list.
Castaway’s Ben Fogle is estimated to have earnt £2million having forged a career in TV presenting, while Jeremy Spake’s unforgettable appearance in Airport landed him a position at number 22, as well as earnings of £800,000.
Those who narrowly missed the list, but seemed destined for a favourable financial future, are Britain’s Got Talent’s 13 year old vocalist Faryl Smith, who has since scooped a £2.3 million recording deal, string quartet Escala (also finalists from Britain’s Got Talent), and Jodie Prenger, who won series of both Biggest Loser and I’d Do Anything, and is now wowing West End crowds as Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Oliver!
Girls Aloud £25 million
Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh, Sarah Harding
The girls won Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, and monstered the UK charts with their first single. But they seemed to fade until staging a massive comeback, starting in 2007. They’ve proved they’ve got real staying power, producing a stream of top ten UK albums, and launching their bestselling autobiography last year.
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