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No one wants to be the first person voted out of Survivor, but every season, one castaway has to pay that price. Obviously, every Survivor contestant’s goal is to make it to the Final Tribal Council and win the grand prize. However, even if they aren’t the Sole Survivor, every player leaves the game with money in their pocket.

Jeff Probst snuffs Morriah Young's torch in the 'Survivor' Season 43 premiere, but despite being the first voted out, Morriah still won money from the show. Probst wears a blue button-up shirt with rolled-up sleeves and gray pants. Morriah wears rainbow overalls over a yellow shirt.
Morriah Young and Jeff Probst | Photo by Robert Voets/CBS via Getty Images

Every ‘Survivor’ castaway walks away from the game with prize money

Although being the first to leave Survivor can be a tough pill to swallow, castaways can at least take solace in the fact that they earned some money for playing the game.

According to CinemaBlend, the first boot receives $3,500 for appearing on the show. And the prize total gets larger the higher you place in a Survivor season. For example, Corinne Kaplan revealed that she made $45,000 for coming in seventh place in Survivor: Gabon and $20,000 for finishing in twelfth place in Survivor: Caramoan.

Survivor castaways can earn even more money ($10,000) if they attend the reunion show. However, it’s unclear how this payout applies to the “new era” seasons since the reunion episodes, which have been rebranded as the “After Show,” take place directly after host Jeff Probst announces the winner during the Final Tribal Council in Fiji. So only the final three and the jury are in attendance.

How much money do the second-place and third-place finishers win in ‘Survivor’?

For making it to the Final Tribal Council in Survivor, the top three placing players make a considerable amount of money. So despite two of them not winning the title of Sole Survivor and the grand prize, they still walk away with a good chunk of change.

The second-place finisher earns $100,000, and the third-place finisher wins $85,000. What happens if the two have the same amount of jury votes is unclear. The last time this occurred was in Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X when Adam Klein unanimously won against Ken McNickle and Hannah Shapiro. So perhaps Ken and Hannah could shed some light on that matter.

And, as always, the total prize money for every Survivor contestant is before taxes. So they ultimately receive less cash than they officially win.

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The grand prize for winning ‘Survivor’ is $1 million

Since the first season of Survivor, the prize money for coming in first place has been $1 million. However, producers doubled the prize for season 40, Winners at War, partly because it was a milestone season and because it was an incentive for previous Sole Survivors to return to the game.

Starting in season 41, producers returned to handing out $1 million to the winners. And in season 43, Mike Gabler declared that he would donate his winnings to veterans — the first time a Sole Survivor has given away their cash prize.

Survivor Season 44 premieres Wednesday, March 1, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. And all seasons of Survivor are available to stream on Paramount+.

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