Is there a paycheck for Survivor players? Breaking down the main prize and money awarded to eliminated castaways

Survivor season 49’s Savannah Louie walked away as the winner of the CBS show on December 17, 2025, taking home a grand prize of $1 million. 

And like her, every season the winner walks away with a prize money, but so do the eliminated contestants. 

According to reports, all the contestants receive a paycheck on the CBS survivalist show, but it depends on a specific factor: their performance in the game, more precisely, how long they last in the contest.

The longer a castaway lasts in the competition, the higher the amount in their paycheck.

As for the winner’s share, the total has remained a constant figure ever since the show premiered in 2000.

Every year, the Sole Survivor has taken home $1 million on paper, except for one season – season 40 – in which the champion walked away with double the usual amount. 

More details on how the Survivor cast members are compensated

According to reports, every other castaway besides the winner walks away with some amount of money.

Survivor seasons 17 and 26 star Corinne Kaplan, during a September 2021 episode of the Trading Secrets podcast, shared:

“I think people are always surprised to learn that we do earn money. The same pot of money exists no matter how many players there are.”

The winner, although rewarded with $1 million, does not actually walk away with that sum, as a significant amount of it gets deducted in the form of taxes. 

As a result, the final amount the Sole Survivor actually receives depends on their state’s tax laws.

Paying taxes is an important step for winners, as avoiding them might result in imprisonment, as happened with season 1 champion Richard Hatch, who had to spend almost three years in jail. 

While in most seasons, the Sole Survivor has walked away with $1 million, it was in season 40, Survivor: Winners at War, that the prize fund was doubled to $2 million. 

It was done to celebrate the 40th season, in which 20 winners from previous seasons participated. Tony Vlachos emerged victorious that year and earned the special prize. 

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2020, host Jeff Probst revealed that the decision to increase the prize fund for the 40th season was made by Kelly Kahl at CBS.

For the other participants, especially the second-place and third-place castaways, a sum of money was reserved as well. 

According to a Today report, the second-place finisher earns $100,000, whereas the player who comes in third wins $85,000. Kaplan, in her podcast interview, confirmed the amount on their paychecks. 

As for the other contestants, Kaplan said:

“The same pot of money exists no matter how many players there are… So, what happens is, roughly, the first person voted out makes like $2,500, and it goes up very incrementally. Those people only make a few thousand, and there’s a couple of hundred dollars difference between them.”

Consequently, players needed to last longer to earn a larger sum of money. 

However, Kaplan added that once the number of people on the cast was narrowed down significantly and they were now eligible to become members of the jury, their paychecks would start “going up by $10K.”

She further claimed that even during the reunion episode, which was paused before season 40 and never returned, all players were given $10,000.

Survivor also had the castaways receive a “Sia Prize,” in which singer-songwriter Sia gave $50,000 to $100,000 of her own money to her favorite contestants. 

The tradition began in season 32 and continued for 14 seasons, ultimately ending after season 46. 

Stay tuned for more updates.