‘Dance Moms’: Chloé Lukasiak Made $0 From Season 1
From the very first season of Dance Moms, it was clear that Chloé Lukasiak and her mother, Christi Lukasiak were fan favorites. Chloé’s impressive dancing skills coupled with her sweet disposition made her someone that many fans instantly wanted to root for. Meanwhile, Christi’s penchant for going toe-to-toe with her daughter’s teacher, Abby Lee Miller, made for excellent reality TV. Thus, it may surprise fans to know that the mother-daughter duo was paid little to nothing for season 1 of the show.
Christi Lukasiak never expected ‘Dance Moms’ to be successful
Diehard Dance Moms fans likely know that the original cast of the show never expected the show to be so popular. The fame and cult following that they received from the show was a huge shock to them. Christi has recalled being in disbelief when the show’s producers told her that Chloé was trending on Twitter in season 1. Since Christi wasn’t expecting the show to change her life, it makes sense that she and her daughter were underpaid for season 1 of the show.
Chloé Lukasiak didn’t make any money from ‘Dance Moms’ Season 1
In a YouTube Q&A via Seventeen, Christi revealed that she only got paid a measly $600 for the first season of Dance Moms. Later in the interview, Jill Vertes (mother of Kendall Vertes) shared that the kids didn’t receive their own paycheck. Instead, the moms chose to spit their paychecks with their children. So while Christi may have put $300 away for her daughter, technically, Chloé didn’t receive payment from the show as the check wasn’t addressed to her.
Another reason that may have accounted for Christi and Chloé being grossly underpaid for Dance Moms Season 1? How quickly the moms were pushed to sign contracts. The original moms have spoken candidly about how fast they made the decision to sign on the dotted line. They didn’t have any experience in entertainment prior to being cast in the show. So when the producers told them that they had to sign or they couldn’t be filmed, they made a snap decision without fully understanding the contracts.
‘Dance Moms’ was originally pitched as a 6-episode docuseries
Interestingly enough, Dance Moms wasn’t even originally supposed to be one season, let alone eight. The show was originally pitched to the cast as a 6-episode docuseries, which Christi assumed nobody would ever watch. However, once the executives at Lifetime saw raw footage of the show, they quickly ordered more episodes.
“‘Listen, the network wants more episodes,” Christi shared in a YouTube Q&A about how she and Chloé’s journey on Dance Moms quickly got extended. “And we were like, ‘Wait, it was supposed to be six.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, no, they think this is going to be a great show.’ And we’re like, ‘It’s not even aired yet.’ And they’re like, ‘It doesn’t matter, they think it’s great. They want more episodes so we’re going on the road this summer.’”’
What is Chloé Lukasiak’s net worth today?
It’s a shame that Chloé didn’t make anything for season 1 of Dance Moms. Hopefully, Christi was able to negotiate a better contract for herself and her daughter in future seasons. However, since Chloé now has a net worth of $6 million according to Celebrity Net Worth, we’d wager that she’s doing just fine.
