How do game shows/networks have so much money to give away as rewards?
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As an addition to everyone’s calculation, the 5 year old explanation is they can afford it because it’s not a lot of money at all. Like, not even relatively close. For a tv studio, game show money is pocket change.
TV budgets even for bad shows are bigger than most people imagine. Even horrible C list tv series pay actors tens of thousand an episode. On the uppoer end, you have Friends, 2 and a half men and Big bang theory seeing individual actors paid over 25 million a year. Add the cost of costumes, multiple sets to film in, more elaborate makeup than a game show, writers, and it all adds up fast.
If TV studios can afford to spend that much for bad, risky TV series, that means ad revenue is still very good. So it’s nothing for them to drop even a few hundred a week as “prizes” considering how much they’re not spending on production and actors.
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