So I’m thinking about applying for Deal or No Deal. The application is crazy long, but I think it would be fun. The one question that my husband has for me is who pays for the flight and stuff to NY? My brother told me that he thought the game shows do, because he thinks Millionaire always paid for the person and their buddy in the audience. Not that he’s an authority or anything! LOL But it did get me wondering.
If I do this, do I have to think about cost to fly and hotel and all that? How about my group of supporters? What’s the policy of most game shows on something like that?
DOND is the best because you are almost gauranteed to get at least $10 grand and probably a lot more if you play smart, and it takes no real brains. You aren’t gonna blank out on an easy question or get beaten by a faster contestant. It’s great.
One last thing, how high are the taxes on game show winnings? If I win the million (HA!), how much can I expect to take home?
Prizes, awards & gambling winnings are reported as income on line 21 of the Federal 1040 as “other income”, and therefore are taxed at whatever the rate is for your filing status. The show should send you a 1099, which will also show whether or not they’ve automatically withheld any taxes.
During Regis’ run and the first season of Meredith’s, NBC was indeed flying contestants in, providing a hotel room, and even giving a per diem to pay for meals. But starting in Meredith’s second season, they no longer do so.
How do I know? I went to a Seattle test and interview for the first season of the daytime version, and was pretty happy to hear that if I was selected, I wouldn’t have to pay for that stuff (I passed the test and got an interview with a production flunky, but they never called me to appear). When the producers came back through a year later, I didn’t bother to try out because I couldn’t have afforded the flight and stay. I wasn’t comfortable assuming I’d walk away with enough cash to cover it, even though I so would have.
So the answer is that it varies by show. I think they’re more likely to pay for the transport and stay on a new show that is trying to establish itself than an ongoing project that’s got people lined up all over the world that want to participate.
Exactly. I tried out for Jeopardy, and made the cut into the contestant pool. We were told that if we got a call to come to LA to be on the show, we would have to pay our own way there and were responsible for our own meals and lodging.