The winner of Dancing With the Stars gets the Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy – but the money is not a prize pulled from a finale pot. According to the Daily Express US, it is the paycheck every finalist has already earned by making it this far. No bonus at the end. No extra stack for finishing first. The five Season 34 finalists – Robert Irwin, Alix Earle, Jordan Chiles, Elaine Hendrix, and Dylan Efron – will all walk away with the same payout once the finale airs.
A recently eliminated contestant called out her own producers for the way her exit played out, but she will still attend the finale and cheer on the final five. And yes, she is getting paid too, just like the others who lasted deep into the season.
Past reports shed light on the real DWTS pay scale
The exact numbers for Season 34 are not confirmed, but the structure has not changed much. Past reports show DWTS salaries dropped ahead of Season 28. The max payout for finalists at the time sat around $295,000 for a full run – a noticeable dip from earlier seasons.
Those same reports outlined the old sliding-scale system: a $125,000 signing bonus that covered rehearsals and the first two weeks, then a bump to $10,000 per week in weeks three and four. Survive week five and six, and it rose to $20,000. Make it deeper, and the checks jumped again – $30,000 for the next stretch and $50,000 for semifinals and finals. Add it all up, and the total came to about $345,000 for a finalist.
Season 27 winner Bobby Bones backed that up years later on the Trading Secrets podcast, saying, “That show pays OK… I ended up making close to $400,000 from that show,” describing how the weekly bonuses stacked.
Negotiations can shift the numbers – but the finale still pays evenly
The Daily Express US also noted something fans forget: if a celeb negotiates a higher signing bonus at the start, their final tally can leap ahead of the others, even if they do not win. Kaitlyn Bristowe talked about that on the same podcast, saying, “Your signing bonus, I think you can negotiate a bit.”
Still, Season 34 isn’t handing out a cash prize. The Daily Express US confirmed that everyone in the finale gets the same base payout for Episode 34. Placement does not change any of it.
