Strictly Come Dancing rich list – AJ Pritchard is raking in the cash as the show’s highest earner
STRICTLY Come Dancing is one of the most popular shows on the BBC and that popularity comes with a huge pay cheque for the professionals.
All the dancers earn a flat fee of £50,000, regardless of performance, but appearances in productions all over the world means many top up their finances.
Meanwhile, the judges are paid hundreds of thousands of pounds and their businesses can make them up to a million.
But who is the top earner? The has delved into the pay cheques of the dancers, judges and presenters to find out who the real winner of the show is.
Gorka Marquez – £105,000
Like all the professional dancers, Gorka earns £50,000 for appearing on the show, then an extra £35,000 for participating in Strictly Come Dancing: The Professionals tour.
He also earned £20,000 for spin-off stage show Here Come The Boys.
Anton Du Beke – £172,000
Anton received £65,000 from his own tour with professional partner Erin Boag, topping up his £50,000 from Strictly.
He doesn’t do the Strictly tour, but he does appear at Dancing With The Stars weekends at Alton Towers, receiving £12,000. He also released a book, One Enchanted Evening, which netted £45,000.
Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara – £290,000
Aljaz and Janette are married, so they both contribute £50,000 each to the family pot. Between them, their appearance on the Strictly tour nets them £140,000.
They gained £30,000 from a short P&O cruise and Aljaz appeared on Here Come The Boys dance tour for another £20,000.
Motsi Mabuse – £325,000
The newest judge on the line up isn’t the worst paid – as she earns £200,000 for a season on the show. Her appearance on Germany’s version, Let’s Dance, nets £75,000.
In Germany she is the face of Weight Waters, so gets £50,000 and she also makes money from her dance school in the country, which she runs with her husband Evgenij Voznyuk.
Katya and Neil Jones – £334,000
The pair are divorcing now but when they were together the couple made £100,000 on Strictly topped with another £50,000 from their stage show Somnium. They also appear on the Professionals tour, netting £70,000.
Three P&O Cruise appearances in the summer earned them £90,000 and dance weekends at Alton Towers gives £12,000 each.
Kevin Clifton – £350,000
While he didn’t take part in the Strictly tour last year – meaning he only got the £50,000 for his winning turn on the show – he got money from other projects, such as £80,000 on ITV show All Star Musicals.
His starring turn on Burn The Floor and Rock Of Ages racked up £10,000 a week for 20 weeks thanks to his name being “above the title”, so tickets were sold off the back of his name.
AJ Pritchard – £360,000
Young AJ is the highest earner out of all the dancers and racked up the majority of his money from TV appearances, gaining £120,000. In the future, being a trainer for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will give him even more cash.
The Strictly Live Tour gives him another £70,000 and the Strictly Come Dancing: The Professionals tour is another £35,000.
Shirley Ballas – £500,000
The head judge recently had a pay rise to £250,000 per series and she also participated in the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour last year, which gave her a further £100,000.
Like much of the dancers, she earns a lot of cash from pantomime (£100,000) and her appearances on TV shows gained her an extra £50,000.
Tess Daly – £570,000
Tess and Claudia earn the same amount of money for their co-presenting duties – £150,000 per series. Her work for the BBC, which includes presenting Children In Need, garners another £170,000.
Her duties as the ambassador for a vitamin brand and Under 18s horse racing days give her another £250,000.
Craig Revel Horwood – £650,000
The razor-tongued judge has been on the show since it started in 2004 but is still the lowest paid judge, with a pay cheque of £180,000. On the other hand, the Strictly tour – which he choreographs – gives him a massive £200,000 a year.
Australian Strictly gives him £125,000 and he does panto for £100,000. Outside of performances, he was paid £156,000 from his company Acid Clutch Productions and earns money from renting out his London home.
Claudia Winkleman – £829,000
Claudia is the best paid woman at the BBC, earning £370,000 in total (which includes her £150,000 fee for Strictly), with the rest coming from her radio show and any other projects.
Her beauty endorsements rack up £250,000 from Head & Shoulders and £200,000 from Boots as an ambassador for No 7.
Bruno Tonioli – £1.85million
Bruno racks up the most cash from anyone in the show. He is paid £250,000 per season for Strictly, though his judging role on Dancing With The Stars nets him £1.5million per season. The Strictly Tour gets another £100,000.
He still gets money from a 2012 autobiography and he presented a BBC Radio 2 series on opera last year. He is a director at Fulvia Limited, which has £2.27million, so he’ll likely get a decent salary.
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