Thursday, December 16, 2010

A brief note on the economics of "The Apprentice"

Famously, the salary for Alan Sugar's "apprentice" is £100k, on a one year contract. But a role as Buttons or King Rat in a decent quality pantomime will pay well over £200k, and sufficiently prominent reality show contestants can keep coming back - "Nasty Nick" from series 1 of Big Brother was still appearing in "Dick Whittington" in Reading last year. I think at least one contestant has worked this one out.
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5 comments:

  1. Tom12/17/2010 01:53:00 AM

    £200k for a panto season? Are you sure? Sounds like alot.

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  2. The Rioja Kid12/17/2010 02:36:00 AM

    It is a lot! But pantos are amazingly profitable. A friend's brother was a very minor player in a distinctly third tier reality show ten years ago, and was offered £50k to be Aladdin in Telford, five years after the show went off the air.

    Per this link, stars can be looking for as much as £40k/week, so Baggs at £200k for the whole season is maybe toward the high end though - Blackpool Tower still does eight weeks of panto but most other seasons are more like five weeks.

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  3. Tom12/17/2010 05:27:00 AM

    Aladdin in Telford? Could it get much worse? Maybe Widow Twankey in Stevenage, but only just.

    I used to get the train every day with Paul Tulip who was one of "Britain's Brightest Young Business Talent" a few series ago. Oh how I chortled when, six months after the show, I overheard a conversation which made it pretty clear he was a recruitment consultant for some low-end temp agency. That said, he had a watch bigger than his head, so maybe I'm in the wrong game.

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  4. Chardonnay Chap12/17/2010 07:43:00 AM

    It seems like a lot to me. Didn't SB claim he was worth 'a million' though? And didn't he expect to make 'millions a year' for making Alan Sugar 'tens of millions'?

    If you saw 'The Final Five' his mother claimed that he'd never read a work of fiction in his life. I'm not sure he'd get acting, the script would be easy to write. He'd need a spoon. And does he understand that his "extreme masculinity" is laughable? Also, The Apprentice goes out after 9pm. What's the youngest a kid would be to see it?

    However, the economics of such an offer would be hard to resist. I could see Jamie going for it, as I suspect he needs the money.

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  5. john b12/18/2010 05:57:00 AM

    I'd take Widow Twankey in Stevenage - at least it's only 20 minutes to civilisation.

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