Do competition-based, reality TV participants get compensated as performers?

Generally yes.

JohnPowell is right. Plus many competitions feature tiered prizes- e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. get decreasingly smaller prizes but still SOME compensation.

Ooo- also, I’m pretty sure the answer is ‘no’ to the SAG thing.

They get a stipend. I think it is 750$ per week on Big Brother.

edit :: I am ashamed that I knew that.

This season, Jen confirmed that the stipend was $750 per week when she was considering refusing to go to the sequester house, and that’s been the standard stipend for nearly every season (for last year’s all-star season, the stipend was reported to have increased to $4,000 per week).

Hangs head in shame

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20501703/

Seriously, I don’t remember what I had for lunch today. But I remember this crap. Shoot me now.

@johnpowell, I’ve got my money on a burrito and six.

I’ve heard that the participants on Survivor get paid for how long they were on the show. People who get kicked off first get X amount, and it goes up for how long they lasted.