Steve-O has become one of the most well known stunt performers, but you might be surprised by his income from the first season of the hit series Jackass. During a recent appearance on the X5 podcast, the stunt artist revealed exactly how much he made, as well as how he was paid per stunt rather than per episode.
Given that Steve-O quickly became a fan favorite on the MTV series, you might think that he rose to the top of pack when it came to pay for his stunts on the show, but as he reveals, he wasn’t exactly collecting a windfall.
How Steve-O Was Paid for Jackass
As the stunt performer revealed during the X5 podcast, “During the first season of Jackass, they paid me per bit, not per episode.”
He added that his entirety of shooting for the first season took place over five days, at which point he wrote down all of the stunts he expected to be paid for.
“The compensation was based on like if it was legitimately in harms way kind of stunt where you could get really hurt or if it was an easy going kind of a sight gag, real low impact prank,” says Steve-O, who adds, “For the former, the real dangerous stuff, I got $500 per bit. But for the latter, for the low impact pranks, it was $200 per bit.”
How Steve-O Tallied His Stunts
When it came time to get paid, Steve-O told the X5 panel, “I pulled out a piece of paper not to itemize what I was owed for, but rather to like emphasize what I thought was worthy of being on the show.”
He recalled, “The first thing that I’d done was swallow the goldfish. I remember writing down ‘Goldfish,’ and I remember writing down next to it like a restaurant menu, like what I expect to be paid. So I wrote down goldfish and I thought about it and next to it I wrote ‘$200.'”
Steve-O admits, “In hindsight, that’s insane. I could have choked to death. I could have absolutely choked to death on that goldfish. It could have gone down backwards or it could have just done total damage to me, but my mentality was not that I was going hard in the paint to get more money. I wanted to be considered the gnarliest guy ever. I wanted to be like, ‘Oh yeah, that was just kinda funny.'”
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How Much Did Steve-O Make in Jackass’ First Season?
“After taxes I made definitely under $1500 for the entire first season,” Steve-O reveals. “There was no back end, no nothing like that.”
The first season of Jackass on MTV ran eight episodes. It debuted April 12, 2000 and after the second episode, it garnered the highest Sunday night ratings the network had seen in its history.
Steve-O has since gone on to appear in most of the Jackass film and TV vehicles, only missing out on Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel, Bad Grandpa and Shark Week 2.0.
Steve-O Reflects on His Income From Jackass’ First Season on the X5 Podcast
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