The more we learn about Bobby Berk’s time on Queer Eye, the more it sounds like a nightmare. The design expert departed the series last year after eight seasons. From there, rumors began circling that there was infighting amongst the Fab Five.
The jury is still out on who caused the feud, but Bobby isn’t done complaining about his time on the show. During a recent appearance on the Networth and Chill podcast, he spilled some major tea about his Netflix salary.
Bobby Berk says Queer Eye stars weren’t paid well
With Emmy nominations and major commercial success, you’d assume that the stars of Queer Eye were raking in the dollars while transforming lives across the country. However, Bobby said that he was actually losing money during the first two seasons because of how poorly they were paid.
“The first two seasons, I definitely lost money,” the Queer Eye alum shared. “They were paying us basically nothing.”
Bobby runs a design company, and he said that being gone from the company to film Queer Eye put a huge dent in his finances. According to him, things didn’t improve as the show gained popularity.
“Seasons 3 and 4, I broke even,” he admitted before dragging Netflix.
He said, “To be frank, they never really paid us well. Compared to what they pay scripted stars, we make a single-digit percentage.”
Although the pay wasn’t great, Bobby said that the show’s visibility opened up major opportunities for brand deals and partnerships. That’s how they started making real money. But, Bobby said their influencer deals started to wear thin on the Queer Eye audience. They just couldn’t win!
“I remember over the years, fans would get annoyed with the Fab Five because we were often promoting brands, promoting companies, doing brand partnerships,” Bobby recalled.
“And they’re like, ‘We’re just so sick of this,'” he continued. “And we’re like, ‘Girl, we don’t make money on the show. Like, this is our form of income.”
Queer Eye is streaming on Netflix.
TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT THE FAB FIVE WERE NOT PAID WELL BY NETFLIX? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON BOBBY CONTIUING TO SPILL TEA ABOUT QUEER EYE?
