Credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino revealed his season-1 salary – and how much he made at the height of his career on Jersey Shore. The star also addressed if he still gets royalty checks, and shared his “biggest” accomplishment.
After Jersey Shore’s first season, the show exploded in popularity. It showcased a group of young people living and partying in New Jersey at the time. After its sixth and final season, castmates went on to film multiple spinoffs.
“I think my strong suit was my authenticity,” said Mike on the Trading Secrets podcast, via Us Weekly. “I feel that authenticity is the most powerful vibe that you can emit in any area of business in any industry. How I evaluated reality TV at the time was that there was no larger-than-life personality in reality TV at the time.”
Mike said he was willing to share an “amped up” version of his personality.
“Everything was based on my life experience, but just turned up a notch,” the star explained. “Then, once I introduced it to America, it just exploded. Nobody had ever seen characters named The Situation, Snooki [or] JWoww, and the world just fell in love with it.”
Mike said he and the original cast made $25 per hour for season 1, and their salaries increased as the show’s popularity grew. In the sixth season, castmates apparently made $179,000 an episode.
“Plus, add in a half a million dollar ratings bonus, as well,” he said. “We hit the ratings bonus every year. Jersey Shore [was] the biggest show in the country … The checks were coming in, they were, like, $675,000 per check. I had never in my life seen checks like that. You’re talking to an ex-stripper, an ex-drug dealer who didn’t have to file his taxes the year before. Then, you start making upwards of $5 million per year with brand deals.”
“We were making upwards of $5 million a year for a few years straight,” Mike went on. “So at least from ’09 to ’12, it was probably like $20-plus million, probably.”
But Mike said he didn’t invest it.
“I didn’t. I was trying to hold on for dear life on the roller-coaster that was Jersey Shore, the brand deals, Super Bowl appearances [and] I was on Jay Leno probably 10-plus times,” he shared. “You get paid probably, like, 500 bucks [to do some talk shows]. At that time period, you’re so busy going [to and] from [all these events].”
Mike also explained that he still gets royalty checks as the show is in syndication.
“You get them quarterly,” he stated. “Probably, every year it amounts to over six figures. It is [like a pension], you get it for the rest of your life.”
According to the star, his family and decade-long sobriety are his biggest accomplishments.
“I wouldn’t have the [addiction] center where I’m helping millions of people now, I wouldn’t have 10 years sober now, which is my superpower,” he said. “I have seven years of marriage in a happy, healthy marriage. I have things that money can’t buy, and that’s when you’re rich.”
“My sobriety is earned, my body [and] my six-pack are earned, my family, my kids, my wife, my story [are all] earned,” he added. “That book is best-selling, it’s my legacy, it’s my life. It’s earned.”