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Bringing in grown-up ratings but being paid like children

Rebekah Devlin

by Rebekah Devlin

19 Oct 05:50am

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Filed under: Channel 10, Children, Cooking, Junior Masterchef, Society, Television

16 comments

I’m sure $15,000 seems like a lot of money when you’re nine, especially if you break it down into mixed lollies.

Illustration: John Tiedmann.

But heck, even cobbers are 10 cents now. One dollar’s worth of mixed lollies gets you a few strawberries and cream, a banana, a set of teeth, two snakes and some leftover white jelly beans.

My point is while raising $15k requires a lot of hard work for most of us, the prize money on offer for the winner of Junior Masterchef is laughable in TV terms.

So Channel 10 and Fremantle Media get months of TV out of them, ratings and revenue success and at the end of it all, one kid gets $15k in a trust fund, second place gets $10k and third and fourth both get $5k - heck Matt Preston would spend that just on cravats each month (and don’t even get me started on the overly-animated, almost condescending way Anna Gare talks to the kids).

Adam won $100,000 for his win last series, but poor Callum only got a $10,000 scholarship. Talk about ripped off.

Series two made a rumoured $100 million in revenues from advertising, marketing and merchandising… Imagine all the cobbers you could buy with that!

Word is the network has sold six sponsorship packages for the kids’ version at a cost of close to $2 million each. It would appear advertisers are not being charged “kids prices” for the series.

And you’d think production costs this time round wouldn’t be as much either - they only have to pay for kids’ size work boots and think of all the material being saved on those tiny aprons.

But it does raise the question of just how much should a kid earn? They are after all, children, with a limited understanding of money and what the prize means for their future.

Sadly, the cashola will hardly even make a dent in the counselling bill some of these poor kids are gonna need once they’ve been chewed up and spat out by the TV industry.

And handing over a Junior Masterchef winner’s cheque for $100,000 would draw just as much criticism.

But I guess this is the problem with putting kids into an adults’ world. We’re happy to use them to make a TV show, but let’s not pay them the same as the big people.

Producers could at least send the unsuccessful kids home with a set of those plastic steak knives they use.

Or better still, set them all up on a cooking scholarship, where they spend a week of their school holidays studying under some of Australia’s best cooks.

Something that shows the network and production company actually does have the kidlets’ best interests at heart. Not that we ever had any doubt, of course.

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16 comments

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    • Ben says:

      06:07am | 19/10/10

      Ignoring reality TV for a minute, the amount paid to actors is ridiculous.  Take for example the young man from Two and a Half Men.  $300K per show.  So what you’re really telling a whole heck of a lot of people his contribution to society is worth more than most people’s 4+ years of work? (And I’m only thinking about westerner’s, not even 3rd world and I’m being overly generous - I doubt he spends 1 week learning 1 episodes worth of lines)

      Reply

    • Jonathan Vandenberg says:

      10:43am | 19/10/10

      Bad example: 2 1/2 men rates incredibly highly, hence the ridiculous fees.
      You’ll find that the average Neighbours or Home and Away star would be lucky to take home a first year teachers wage.

      Disclaimer: All TV shows mentioned in this point are turds.

    • newnewshound says:

      10:47am | 19/10/10

      Maybe the guy from Two and a Half Men is paid an obscene amount, but so too are movie stars, sports stars, rock stars, after dinner speakers, corporate CEOs, advertising gurus, and so-called celebrities who are famous for nothing more than being famous. The list goes on.

      But I digress. $300K per show is unique to that celebrity madhouse known as the United States. The average ANNUAL income for a working actor in Australia is around $12K and no actor draws such stratospheric salaries in this country as their US counterparts. (Talk show hosts, newsreaders and comperes maybe, but not actors.)

      Let’s not think for a moment that anyone goes onto a reality TV show for the money. Getting famous is the new getting rich. In fact, you can be sure that there would be plenty of people who would happily PAY to get their face on TV. In the tradition of actors being at the very bottom of the TV pay scale, contestants and participants in reality shows are now treated as the new cellar dwellers, and you can assume it will be always thus.

    • Matthew says:

      11:56am | 19/10/10

      Ben, most actors spend a lot of time out of work, unlike someone with a steady job for 4 years.  They get paid so much because they’re the best at what they do, the struggled for a long time and there was a huge risk that they’d fail at life (there are a lot of unemployed actors out there).  Remember, the top 1% of accountants, IT professionals, doctors etc earn those amounts (if not more) as well.  The acting industry is no different to any others.

    • acotrel says:

      04:07pm | 19/10/10

      $15K is enough for kids.  Havent you heard of the ‘free market’?  Well in TV terms their appearances are almost ‘free’!

    • Chris says:

      06:45am | 19/10/10

      While I am concerned about the money in trust funds for the kids, I do object to your third last paragraph.

      It is my recollection that all the kids (right from the top 50) still get the KitchenAid products, the knives and the other stuff.

      Reply

    • T. ( Curmudgeon) Chong says:

      07:01am | 19/10/10

      15 k might be laughable, but so is anyone who sits there in slack jawed wonder at what they see.
      The whole thing is so obviosly set up and manipulated - cutey kids with dimples and smiles , giving prerehearsed answers and witticisms , all for the “aww, shucks” responses from the at home audience.
      After the Top Model PR stunt , does anyone seriosly believe that the whole franchise is not a set up, that the producers / directors, and most importantly, advertisers, havent already decided who wins what ?
      Good on the kiddies for trying, but it is a show to flog products , with kiddies being used to do the advertising.
      Baah, humbug.  now for coffeee, and some puppy kicking.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      10:32am | 19/10/10

      You old curmudgeon, you, stop picking on the youngsters.
      It’s their big day out, and they’re doing what mum,and dad (?) do in the kitchen three times a day.
      (I’m talking about settled households here.)
      10 cents for a cobber and the world is falling around about our ears, so let’em have fun. And I reckon if they got,say, 825 grand fer their work, well, that may be ‘comeuppence’.

    • acotrel says:

      04:12pm | 19/10/10

      Well look at the alternatives.  You could turn the shrinking machine on Oprah and Fonsie, and use them in the programme as kids?

    • Chris C says:

      08:05am | 19/10/10

      Curious to learn though Rebekah, you mention what the two different show winners earn. What would be a more appropriate prize cash amount? Your suggestion about a scholarship has great merit and is very worthwhile but the whole show still bumps into the problem of how do you say to a child who has just slaved his or her guts out to produce a meal that tastes like utter rubbish, without saying that directly. I wonder if Anna, Matt and co have been given any training on how to critique someone without them needing serious mental health care afterwards cause you’ve just smashed there dream. This I don’t feel they have quite got sussed yet, awaiting further developments on that one!

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      08:21am | 19/10/10

      I watched this for a while a few nights ago.  In the immortal words of Dorothy Parker - “Tonstant Weader fwowed up.”

      Reply

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      11:19am | 19/10/10

      Spare me the cries of child exploitation. Even if you had a prize of $1, you’d get hundreds of parents dragging their kids along to the auditions for a chance to get their kid a 15 minutes of fame. If you want to see serious child exploitation go to somewhere in Southeast and Southwest Asia and take a look at some of the sweatshops operating…..

      Reply

    • Matthew says:

      11:59am | 19/10/10

      Rebekah, your comments about reduced production costs are ridiculous.  Yes, the clothing they wear is smaller but it’s also one of the lowest costs involved in the show.  How many extra hours of filming do they have to do because the kids screw up/cry etc?  Or the extra staff they have to have to handle them.  I’m sure the costs to make the show are nearly identical to the last season of the full version of Masterchef.

      Reply

    • Bek says:

      01:12pm | 19/10/10

      That was a joke there Matt… maybe I should have put an grin or an ! after it.

    • fairsfair says:

      03:32pm | 19/10/10

      Is that Matt(hew) Preston? Cravat too tight champ.

    • Stiffy says:

      12:17pm | 19/10/10

      Didn’t watch the adult series but gee the kids are great. They probably do get a little help off camera but you can see the cooking talent and simple love of cooking. There ability, reactions and emotions make the show a deserved ratings winner and a nice break from the 7.30 report.
      However, I thought that how they culled them down on camera was tough. The format probably does need to be reviewed and toned down. Some are as young as 9.
      They should all get some reward. The amounts above seem piddling. Maybe a decent scholarship for their future careers would be in order.

      Reply
 
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