When Anthony Hutton won the sixth series of Big Brother in 2005, he could “go into shops and not even have to look at the price tag”. Hutton, now a 41-year-old barber and mental health advocate based in Darlington, spent his £50,000 prize lavishly. By combining it with earnings from magazine photoshoots, he was able to buy a Range Rover, take a trip to Las Vegas and buy some property. He even bought his aunt a holiday to Disney World. “I drove to the Monaco Grand Prix in a Lamborghini,” he recalls. “Previously, the most extravagant place I’d been to was Magaluf.”
When 26-year-old Jordan Sangha won the latest series of Big Brother in November, a look of contentment washed over his face. “I can pay my council tax,” he grinned.
People appear on reality TV for any number of reasons: fame, glory, finally getting to taste kangaroo testicles. Yet an undeniable draw is the cash prize, which has been a constant on British TV since the 1955 gameshow Take Your Pick! But – as often seems to be the case – things aren’t what they used to be. When the latest series of reality competition The Traitors debuted on BBC One in early January, host Claudia Winkleman asked contestants what they would spend £120,000 on if they won.
“I don’t have anything or anybody to fall back on,” said one participant, “so it’s my one chance to get my foot on the ladder.” (She was “banished” from the show in episode four.) Another contestant wanted to pay off their mum’s mortgage; one wanted to foot the bill for his brothers and sisters when they went out to eat. Only one person spoke of travelling the world. Another said she couldn’t get married because of the cost of living crisis: “I’d love to get married, I really would.”
What was once attainable is now aspirational. This isn’t news to anyone who has tried to buy a bottle of ketchup recently, but it’s interesting to see it affect the dreams of reality TV wannabes. Hutton was a postal worker when he went on Big Brother – he had just given up his dreams of playing professional football and thought: “Is this it?” He applied to be on the show because he knew it could change his life. He was right. But now, do people apply simply to pay their bills?
Big Brother’s first ever winner, Craig Phillips, donated his £70,000 prize money to pay for a friend’s heart and lung transplant. The series’ second winner, Brian Dowling, has been quoted as saying: “At least half was spent on travelling, holidays, turning left, turning right, designer clothes.” He even bought a Gucci belt with his name on it. Yet post-recession, after Chloe Wilburn won the largest Big Brother UK prize pot of £116,100 in 2015, she promptly returned to work. Wilburn said she wanted to get married and have a child – she also made an offer on a house. “I can’t [waste my winnings], my mum’s got my money,” she said. “She wanted to keep my feet on the ground just so I don’t blow it on crazy trips to Benidorm.”
Of course, a narrative of decline isn’t one-size-fits-all – to a certain extent, reality TV contestants have always wanted to keep up with the cost of living. The first ever Britain’s Got Talent winner, Paul Potts, spent his £100,000 winnings paying off his debts. The second winner of the show, George Sampson, repeatedly spoke about money troubles on the show, saying that he had busked to buy his mum petrol and was “hoping for a better life” for his family. Producers have long known that some stories hold more sway with viewers than others. Still, serial gameshow contestant Mike Stratton sheds light on how things have changed over the years.
“These days, with bills rising, the money tends to go on daily needs rather than luxuries,” says 55-year-old Stratton, who has appeared on 18 quizshows and written a book called How to Get on Game Shows and Win £1000’s: Confessions of a Game Show Addict. In total, he has won £70,000 in cash and prizes in the last 23 years – he spent it on laser-eye surgery, IVF, cars and holidays. Yet he says his latest winnings, £2,400 from the BBC gameshow Decimate in 2016, were spent on paying off credit card debt.
Stratton, a male stripper who lives in Wigan, says that now, you would have to win £40,000 to be able to spend like he did when he won £10,000 20 years ago. His first ever win was on the 2001 gameshow Greed, that was hosted by Jerry Springer – he answered just one question (Q: “What building is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC?” A: “The White House”) and won £10,000. “We spent it on a house deposit, a holiday and several other bits,” Stratton says. In the year 2000, the average house deposit was £9,865. In 2023, it was £62,500. To put things another way: 20 years ago, you would only have to get to question eight out of 15 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to be most of the way towards a deposit; now you’d have to get to question 11.
Not only has the cost of living increased in the last two decades, prize money has often simultaneously decreased – most famously when the then eight-year-old Channel 4 quiz The Million Pound Drop downgraded to The £100k Drop in 2018. When Survivor debuted in 2001, its prize money was also £1m; when it returned to screens in 2023, it had also been slashed to a tenth of its original offering.
Even winnings that have stayed the same have arguably decreased. Though Britain’s Got Talent winners have received a whopping £250,000 each since 2013, inflation means that the prize money would have to be increased to £330,000 to be of equal value today.
Hutton believes that prize-winnings should increase in line with inflation – not simply because of the cost of living, but also because “you would get better TV”. Hutton theorises that a £250,000 prize pot on Love Island would inspire “really conniving gameplay – you’re going to potentially get people that will compromise their character to get that money.”
Some telly is still offering big bucks – two NHS workers Helen and Charlie recently won £1m on Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win, the premise of which is in the name (there is no cap on the potential prize). Still, even then, the married couple said the first thing they would do with the prize is pay off their mortgage, adding: “We also need a new secondhand car.” Two decades ago, when a Scottish nurse won £1m on The Vault in 2004 (back then, this was the largest amount ever won on live TV), her first thought was of a luxury trip to St Lucia.
A year earlier in 2003, a student who won £700,000 on The Vault did speak of buying a home – but a holiday one, in Spain.
Perhaps contestants these days simply don’t want to boast, but there is no denying that prize-winnings don’t go as far as they used to. Between 2022 and 2023, package holidays increased by 30% in price. The phrase “£1m home” used to conjure up images of mansions and butlers – now it describes a three-bed terrace house in London. Some shows have acknowledged our darkening days: in 2022, This Morning notoriously ran a spin-to-win competition where the prize was having four months worth of energy bills paid off.
It can’t help but feel a bit dystopian when people enter competitions not to live lavishly, but simply to live. Though we are still a long way off, we are arguably closer to The Hunger Games than ever before. In this environment, how will viewers react to villainous behaviour on-screen? On shows such as The Traitors, players often excuse their manipulation of others with the oft-repeated phrase: “It’s just a game.” But if the prize money is a roof over someone’s head or their pension pot, the stakes have never been higher.
