As the Battle of the Eras premiere gets closer, some cast members did a promo event in Los Angeles. The gathering celebrated the new season, but over half of the Season 40 cast didn’t attend, and the reason for their absence was no secret: They weren’t getting paid.
To be clear, this event did look like a lot of fun. From all accounts, the cast and fans who attended had a great time, and the set up looked really cool. Even Bananas said meeting the fans was “payment enough.”
That doesn’t mean there weren’t a few feathers ruffled in the process. Cory and Amanda have both addressed the fact that they weren’t at the event because they weren’t getting paid. Cory stated that he was expected to do two days of press for free, and Amanda lives in Colorado, so getting to LA wouldn’t be cheap.
Many people agreed with these cast members, but Wes chimed in with a different view point. To be fair, Wes likely isn’t doing this to be a contrarian. He’s not on the upcoming season, so he has less to lose by pulling back the curtain and discussing behind-the-scenes details.
Most notably, he stated that doing extras and promo is part of the cast members’ contracts. And this aligns with information that has been revealed in the past, though these “press” commitments are usually Aftershows and reunions. Wes also revealed some cast members are being paid to be there, but he didn’t give names, and he dissed people who flaunted their “greed” on social media.
He later stated that he was not anti-employee — though he did state that he hopes production starts benching people who come across as ungrateful.
This event didn’t have the same outcome as Dirty Thirty promo events, but it still looked like fun and the vast majority of Challenge fans are not impacted by it whatsoever. However, it’s not ridiculous for cast members to receive compensation for their time and travel, especially when there is money involved in the event (Da’Vonne shared she was paid for her hosting duties). At a minimum, these time commitments should be made clear to the cast before they sign their contracts.
But, if we’re being fair, we don’t see any cast members getting punished for not showing up. Many fans are comparing the press event to the ones we saw prior to Dirty Thirty, but it’s likely they were never meant to be the same. So, unsurprisingly, this event looked different and had a different outcome.
Receipts:
Stop Being Polite 