People might be amazed how much or how little fishermen actually get paid when they head out to bountiful but unpredictable sea to make their living, but the crews that are a part of Wicked Tuna manage to get paid. After so many seasons and so many episodes, the crew members and captains have been pretty well set considering that they get a salary along with the money that they earn from their catches. The lowest-paid captain of the show has a rough net worth of $250,000, while the top captain of the show has a net worth of around $600,000. The crewmen are bound to have quite a bit less of net worth but considering that thousands are paid out per episode, per cast member no less, one can’t really say that they’re not paid. This kind of money is unheard of when it comes to a lot of fishermen, which means that being a part of a TV show is a lucky break for a lot of working stiffs that risk their lives pursuing a job that can be more than a little dangerous and requires a constant risk on the part of those involved. The price of bluefin tuna though is definitely what carries a lot of fishermen through that don’t work on this show, as well as anything else that might be done to earn a living. For the kind of money they’re making, one might assume that these guys would be working their fingers to the bone or sitting back and acting like they’re working while the cameras are on, and are just collecting an income when the cameras are off. That’s not the case since to be perfectly honest these individuals are still fishermen that need to work in order to be interesting enough for people to watch, and to survive, since if the show decided not to come back then that cushy salary would go away pretty quickly.
The average income for fishermen is around $28 to $30K on a yearly basis, and some make upwards of $40K depending on a variety of factors. One can imagine that the cast of Wicked Tuna is feeling pretty fortunate since what they’re making pretty much dwarfs what the industry standard is, and it’s fair to say that per episode they’re able to make a year’s salary in short order at times. Some folks might actually say that something like this is unfair, but the truth of the matter is that while the show is dramatized and scripted quite often there’s no doubt that the cast is still doing what they can to be seen as a legitimate operation. The fact that so many reality shows are accused of being scripted and staged and aren’t even close to reality is often a black mark against any show no matter what they say or do. Wicked Tuna has been accused of being fake more than once and has seen plenty of problems arise during its time, but throughout everything, they’ve kept going. Faking a show such as this isn’t impossible, but it’s definitely harder than one that’s based on land and in a space that can be completely controlled. There are plenty of instances that have occurred over the course of the show that might have shown that things aren’t always as legit as people are claiming, but overall it’s been noted that the show is doing what it can to maintain its integrity. It’s a bit difficult to do this when a bunch of people already think that things are being faked for the entertainment of the audience, which means even the most authentic parts of the business are constantly under close scrutiny and might not be believed in any case.
Funnily enough, the rate of pay would be easy for people to believe since the matter would be coupled with negative connotations no doubt in an attempt to discredit the show further. In some cases, it might actually be pretty amusing to make this connection and make it hurt as much as possible to be certain that the producers of said reality TV shows understood that they’re not fooling people, or entertaining them. On the other hand, the fact that people even watch reality TV at this point and time is a testament to the fact that they don’t care if it’s fake or scripted for their further enjoyment, which means that doing or saying anything to make life harder on the people that are running the show, or the cast, would be kind of pointless. The fact is that one way or another they do earn their money and it’s fair to state that they have enough to go through in order to get it between what they have to do for the show and what they have to put up with in their industry.
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