How Long Does It Take for Reality and Game Show Winners to Get Paid?

If you saw David Genat win $5.8 million on Deal or No Deal Island — a windfall NBC calls the biggest prize in primetime history — you may have also seen that, more than seven months after taping that Season 2 finale, Genat still hadn’t received his money.

“I’ve already started spending it! That’s what’s been going on. It’s not in the account just yet,” Genat told Entertainment Weekly in a post-finale interview. “I think I’ll check it every day, and I’ll post to Instagram every day showing people my account balance.”

(And in case you’re curious, Genat told TV Insider he plans to “take a big holiday and buy a new bicycle” with the money… and then think about his future when he’s off “cloud nine.”)

So how long does it usually take for the check to clear on reality and game-show prizes? It varies, as it turns out. Read on…

Prize money usually doesn’t go out until the episode airs.

It’s actually not surprising that Genat didn’t receive his millions before the Deal or No Deal Island Season 2 finale aired. Shannon Perry, EVP of Reality Development and Production Services at Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, told Wrapbook that game show producers usually wait for the episode to air before sending out the prize money.

“Contestants sign a contestant agreement and a rules document that will state everything from how the game is played, to how difficult issues will be resolved, to how and when prizing is paid out,” Perry said. “Typically, prizing is not paid out until after the show airs, so you will be receiving your payment, your prize money, a specified number of days from the date of air of your episode.”

Sony Pictures Television

Wheel of Fortune contestants, for example, typically receive their cash and/or prizes within 120 days of their episode’s airdate, according to the game show’s FAQs.

And for a while, it seemed like contestants of Lucky 13 wouldn’t get their dough at all, after the U.K. producer behind ABC’s now-canceled game show hit financial difficulties. This February, however, Deadline reported that ABC was nearing an agreement to pay more than $460,000 to compensate the winners.

Big prizes are often paid out in installments.

An archived version of the official rules for the syndicated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire explains that the game show paid out prizes of $250,000 or below 30 days after broadcast. $500,000 winners got a $250,000 sum 30 days after broadcast, and the rest were paid out in annual installments over 10 years. And winners of the $1 million grand prize got a $250,000 sum 30 days after broadcast, and the rest were paid out in annual installments over 20 years.

Valleycrest Productions

And bear in mind that reality and game-show prizes are taxed. Winners of cash or prizes worth $600 or more will likely get a 1099-MISC tax form from the entity bankrolling the prize, which will also send a copy to the IRS, according to Nerdwallet.

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Contestants might not be paid if their season doesn’t air.

Big Brother and Survivor contestant contracts published by Reality Blurred contain the same language regarding payouts hinging on the episodes actually making it to air.

Both contracts say that the shows’ respective prizes are “contingent upon … the episode cycle in which [the contestant appears] actually being broadcast” and that the prizes shall be awarded only after the airing of that episode cycle’s finale.

Reality Blurred also cited a contestant from The Amazing Race who recalled signing a similar contract. At the time of that report, it had been more than a year since The Amazing Race Season 32 was filmed. Had CBS canceled the show before airing Season 32, the winners wouldn’t necessarily have gotten their prize, the site noted. Luckily for Will Jardell and James Wallington, the Season 32 finale finally aired in December 2020 — just two short years after they won the race.

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