Bravo Housewives‘ salaries are often a hot topic, especially when it comes to some of the rumored soaring rates some women earn. And while many women are making bank from the series, Real Housewives of New York City OG, Bethenny Frankel said it’s not cut and dry.
In fact, Frankel said quite a few Housewives will lie about how much they make from the show.
“Most Housewives lie about what they’re getting paid in the same way that most Housewives lie about whether or not they were fired,” Frankel said in an Instagram video post. “Just know that it ranges from $25,000 for the first season to seven figures and for some people more.”
‘Housewives’ were initially paid the same salaries
Frankel reflected on how some people are completely fixated on how much money Housewives make, but she refused to spill on her specific salary.
“I talk about the concept. But I don’t talk about how much my Housewives salary was because Bravo was a partner. And I never, ever rat out anything that I did with my partners. And it would also upset the whole entire applecart and it would be horrible,” she said.
“When we first started, it was favored nations. Favored nations mean everybody gets paid the same,”
Frankel explained. “There’s a different caliber of Housewives that will come on the show now. So when I started, everyone was paid the same number for the first season, which was a certain number of episodes. And they’ll kind of say, this is what you’re getting paid this much for this many episodes. So season 1, you’re all paid a certain amount, and then for additional episodes, that’s like you get more money.”
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But then came the ‘Housewives’ contract negotiations
But it’s not so simple. “So you’re kind of getting a bulk fee for all the episodes that you film. And then we came back season 2, and it already will state like they have you locked in,” she said. “There was like a percentage increase. But you always can negotiate because you have the leverage of not wanting to come back and you’re just going to like sleep and not shoot.”
“What happened was second and third season, people start banding together and wanted to get more money, myself included. Jill [Zarin] said I want to go with you. I want to do whatever you are doing. I want you to negotiate for me, which was wise. So I negotiated for us to increase.”
“So this is where everybody gets different because the blondes would sometimes align together and then get nervous when the show started filming without them, and then they’d break down and then make all different kinds of deals.”
Bravo ‘Housewives’ salaries have wide ranges
“So there are deals that people have per episode. There are deals that people have for a certain number of episodes,” she added.
But also, “There are deals that people have for the all-you-can-eat buffet the entire season and you can shoot 9,000 episodes, and reunion counts as an episode,” Frankel said. “There are so many different types of deals with Housewives because people also are coming in at different times. It’s just changed so much.”
“Then there’s precedent. Bravo cares very much about precedent,” she shared. “Because all Housewives except for me, for the most part, talk about their salaries. Because the thing is, you want to talk to someone because you want to have an understanding if you’re getting entirely clipped or if you’re on the right path. So it’s sort of hard. There is a value to being able to talk to somebody else about something that only these other people understand. It’s an ala carte Chinese menu how Housewives get paid.”
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