Game shows – we play along all the time at home, but becoming the host or co-host TV game show is a very lucrative business. We’ve managed to unearth some information on how much these game show hosts are worth, and these figures might just surprise you.
# Alex TrebekWorth: $50 million Said to earn $10 million annually, Alex Trebek is worth over $50 million, and when you look at his impressive career that spans over fifty decades, it’s not difficult to understand why. The Canadian-American TV personality has been the host of a number of TV shows, including To Tell the Truth, Classic Concentration, Battlestars, High Rollers, Double Dare, The Wizard of Odds, and of course, Jeopardy!
# Jeff Foxworthy
Worth: $100 millionIf you’ve ever seen the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, you’ll know who Jeff Foxworthy is, and he’s also released no fewer than six comedy albums, with big name labels too. Of course, many of you will know him as the host on Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, and with an estimated worth of $100 million, he’s one of the most successful stand-up comedians, and also one of the wealthiest also. Not bad for a guy who is considered a “late bloomer” in the comedy business, and who started his job history with IBM, maintaining computers. It wasn’t until the nineties that The Jeff Foxworthy Show started to make him a big household name, and things have just gotten better and better for him ever since.
# Drew Carey
Worth: $165 millionAnother name who first started in comedy, Drew Carey was actually in the U.S. Marine Corps before all of that. He’s had actually had an impressive and varied career, and as well as being a well-known and much-loved game show host, he’s also a sports executive, a comedian and an actor. Shows include ABC’s Whose Line Is It Anyway and The Drew Carey Show. It was in 1985 that he made the leap into comedy, after a friend suggested he read some library books on how to write and tell jokes. It turns out that was very good advice, and the American household name is now said to have amassed a wealth of over $165 million.
# Dick Clark
Worth: $200 millionSadly, Dick Clark died in 2012 of coronary heart disease and a heart attack during a surgical procedure, but he managed to earn himself a very impressive wealth of $200 million and more. He was a very big name in the world of TV and radio, and the thing he is most remember and loved for is American Bandstand – 1957 to 1987. His entire career spanned a whopping 67 years, right up until his untimely passing, and even earned him the nickname “America’s oldest teenager”.
# Dick Clark
Worth: $200 millionSadly, Dick Clark died in 2012 of coronary heart disease and a heart attack during a surgical procedure, but he managed to earn himself a very impressive wealth of $200 million and more. He was a very big name in the world of TV and radio, and the thing he is most remember and loved for is American Bandstand – 1957 to 1987. His entire career spanned a whopping 67 years, right up until his untimely passing, and even earned him the nickname “America’s oldest teenager”.
# Merv Griffin
Worth: $1 billion Merv Griffin, also known as Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr., sadly passed away in 2007 following a battle with prostate cancer, but he built up quite the empire in his lifetime, becoming a media mogul, actor, singer, musician and TV host for American television. It was actually big band singer and on radio that he first found fame, but in 1965 he was given his own talk show – The Merv Griffin Show. He started a business, two, in fact, and under the names Merv Griffin Entertainment and Merf Griffin Enterprises, he created two of the most popular game shows in the world – Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! He was said to have been worth over a billion dollars.