Sophia Michaels
The “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast is super unique (as in, they can make anything into a problem). But honestly, the cast’s confrontational nature is probably why they’re so popular to this day. But that’s not that only thing that makes “RHONJ” a unique experience. Unlike other cities, the husbands and boyfriends on “RHONJ” do get paid an appearance fee.
In 2022, while speaking with Michael Rapaport, who was guest-hosting “The Wendy Williams Show,” Melissa Gorga shared an interesting fact. “You will see [Bravo host] Andy [Cohen] kind of chase after him, tell him that he is paid to be there,” Melissa said during the segment as she talked about Joe Gorga. “He’s not there because he wants to all the time. I think people get that misconstrued, that he’s just there because, you know, he wants to hang with the girls. Like, Joe is an actual cast member on the show.”
Joe, in particular, takes home about $45,000 a year (as opposed to per episode), according to Distractify. There’s no word on why other franchises haven’t worked out similar terms for the men on their shows, but it’s not like their counterparts aren’t being compensated enough to support their entire households. And as Vulture pointed out (via Heavy), all of the men from “RHONJ” warrant a salary (the amount is anyone’s guess), because they negotiated for it in their contracts. The amount is unknown. Will other franchises ever follow suit?
