ABC A DWTS champ reveals whether or not she'd sell her Mirrorball.
Selling her Mirrorball?
On the April 10, 2023, episode of Jason Tartick’s “Trading Secrets” podcast, Mirrorball champ Kaitlyn Bristowe talked about her time on “Dancing With the Stars” and the coveted Mirrorball Trophy.
Tartick, who is engaged to Bristowe, asked his fiancee about the Mirrorball Trophy that she won on season 29. “I wonder how much you could sell it for,” Tartick said. Bristowe was quick to respond.
“I wouldn’t. You could pay me $1 million, I wouldn’t sell it,” she said.
Here’s what you need to know:
Kaitlyn Bristowe Says the Mirrorball Trophy Costs $10,000 to Make
During their sit-down interview, Tartick also asked Bristowe how much she thought the Mirrorball was worth, to which she replied that she knew the answer.
“I know how much it cost them to make it,” she said. “My year that I won was the first year that they revamped it and made it better. And they told me,” she continued, adding that the cost of the Mirrorball was $10,000.
Indeed, the Mirrorball Trophy has gone under a couple of revamps over the years. Interestingly, the trophy was initially crafted using a brass lamp.
Then, in 2008 — the very first time Derek Hough won it and held it over his head — a letter fell off the front.
“The first year Derek Hough won, he lifted the trophy up and while he was shaking it and fist pumping it above his head, the D came off,” DWTS production designer James Yarnell told People magazine in 2017. “There’s press photos of it saying ‘ancing with the Stars!’ But that was the logo and there wasn’t a lot that we could do about it.”
Kaitlyn Bristowe Says She Did Not Receive a ‘Bonus’ for Winning ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Another question that Tartick asked was whether or not Bristowe took home a monetary bonus after winning DWTS alongside Artem Chigvintsev. The former “Bachelorette” lead admitted that she did not and explained a little bit about how the payment process works for people who agree to compete on the show.
Bristowe explained that everyone’s sign-on bonus is different — some stars are offered more money while others earn less. Then, week after week, all of the dancers who are still on the show earn money. The top four competitors are all paid the same amount and don’t receive any more money after the finals.
“You get a bonus every week that you make it,” Bristowe told Tartick. “The final four are in the final episode [and] they all get paid the same,” she explained.
In 2019, sources told Variety that celebs joining the show make some $125,000 for their first two weeks on air and they make additional money each week from then on out — until they are eliminated from the season.
“If they make it to week three and beyond, they begin to earn additional fees each week. Sources say that the maximum contestants can earn is $295,000,” Variety reported.
The ballroom pros are believed to make somewhere between $1,200 and $5000 per episode, according to Us Weekly.
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