Initially a spin-off of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules is now as equally revered in the eyes of reality TV fanatics. The long-running series, following Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant empire and her employees, has made stars of the cast members, even beyond the world of the already lucrative Los Angeles restaurant business.
The series has steadily grown in popularity since its launch in 2013, with the spin-off show even creating its own spin-offs. The salaries of the cast have grown to match, all while creating a global business network of various endeavours, from food and fashion to music and makeup.
Vanderpump Rules cast salaries
According to In Touch Weekly, Lisa Vanderpump takes home $50,000 an episode as the titular cast member and head of the Vanderpump business empire on the reality series. At roughly 20 episodes per season, that’s $2 million per year, which may seem like small change in comparison to the former Real Housewife’s estimated $90 million fortune.
According to the same publication, supporting stars like Tom Sandoval, Scheana Shay, and Stassi Schroeder are said to take around half that wage, at $25,000 an episode. Given the rising popularity of the spin-off series, the supporting cast’s salaries have risen from an estimated $38,000 a season to approximately $1 million annually.
Additional earnings
Many Vanderpump Rules cast members have their own side hustles in addition to their main business endeavours as restauranteurs. For example, Lala Kent has her own fashion and skincare range in her own name. Several cast members, such as Scheana Shay, have their own podcasts, which can bring in their own earnings, depending on platform and popularity.
Podcasts as well as social media posts are prime real estate for “spon-con” – another name for sponsored content, where a brand the person is in partnership with gets a shoutout on podcast episodes or on Instagram posts, for example. These sorts of earnings are much harder to calculate, as the earnings are not published for the public to read. However, Shay, who has several mentioned business endeavours (as well as a music career) takes home an estimated $500,000 a year as of 2023, according to Life&Style.
Some business ventures are more transparent, however. For example, Jax Taylor has a Cameo page that charges roughly $100 for shoutouts, with nearly 500 completed videos under his belt. This is roughly a cool $50,000 total for the reality star, in addition to his other payments. Not bad.