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Hulu just dropped The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 3, and we have some questions: 1) Can MomTok even survive this? and 2) how much is the cast being paid? Because as you might have noticed, a lot of this season’s drama stems from money—and how far everyone’s willing to go to make it.
Obviously an investigation is in order, so here’s what we’ve uncovered so far:
How Much Does MomTok Earn From Brand Deals?
MomTok “is a community” but it’s also a money making machine. The group is deep in its sponsored content era, and pretty much everyone is reaping the benefits. I mean, Mikayla Matthews literally started season 2 by informing everyone that “the brand deals have been way up—my husband, his entire yearly salary is how much I make on one brand deal.”
So…how much money are we talking, exactly?
Whitney Leavitt got into specifics during an interview with E! News last year, saying, “It’s hard because each year is different. You could get a really big brand deal like, ‘Hey, we want to have like a six-month contract with you,’ and then next year you don’t get it at all. It varies drastically.”
Whitney noted that she once got $20,000 to promote a sex toy on Instagram, while Mayci Neeley explained, “We both have gotten one—we can’t say what it was—but we’ve gotten a deal that was $75,000 [for] one year. Each industry varies. Some pay more than the others.”
What Does The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Pay Per Episode?
Hulu hasn’t divulged that information, but the show got pretty meta about money during season 2, and it sounds like everyone is paid the same. At least based on the fact that Jessi Ngatikaura was asked, “Are you worried Demi was willing to take a bigger contract even if it meant you potentially being dropped from the show?” Which seems to imply that in order for one cast member to earn more, another has to be chopped.
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Mayci gave even more insight into the situation, explaining, “Demi basically was willing for Jessi to be off the show if she could kinda get paid more,” while Taylor Frankie Paul noted, “Demi was willing to let Jessi go off the show for more money.”
And it seems like this drama went down during contract negotiations for season two, since Jessi mentioned a “call with our lawyers and managers,” and Demi referenced a “mutual understanding” that everyone was going to “come in fighting for everything as a united front” until Jessi “dogged us and went around us.”
On top of all that, Taylor further implied that everyone on the show is paid the same when she said, “If anyone has the right to be paid the most, it’s me, and I’ve never even asked for that.”
The TL;DR?
1) The cast is making upwards of $75k per brand deal.
2) Everyone appears to be making the same amount for the show.
3) Their pay-per episode hasn’t been revealed. Yet. Give the internet time.