The Star Academy is back on TF1, with renewed promotion and perhaps better remuneration conditions…
The castle of Dammarie-les-Lys is finally reopening its doors to welcome around fifteen new talents! The Star Academy is back on TF1, with a first prime-time which has been scheduled for this Saturday, October 12, 2024, on the first channel. And like last year, this 2024 season of Star Ac’ promises its share of emotions and twists and turns. But behind the glitter of the television show, lies a harsher reality: that of the remuneration of budding artists, who will devote between 15 and 17 weeks to the show itself, in addition to a tour which will take some of them on the roads of France for months.
Because if the Star Academy candidates are above all students, they are also those who provide the show for TF1 and above all the income from a tour that has become colossal, with last season 75 almost sold out dates across all of France (from March 9 to July 7) and an audience of 450,000 spectators. With a price starting at around fifty euros per place and going up to 140 euros for a “Prestige Pack”, it is a real windfall which has been offered to Arachnée Productions, co-organizer with Endemol, who have already put the tickets for the 2025 tour on sale. With a small increase in price.
A big salary gap between students, teachers and… Nikos!
So how much do students earn during the Star Academy adventure? Not much actually. At the castle, where they are filmed from 8 a.m. to midnight, or even 2 a.m., i.e. days of 16 hours or more, the candidates would receive the minimum wage, or around 1,500 euros per month. Everything obviously depends on the time spent in the show. Remuneration assumed by production to allow them to “keep their feet on the ground”, while a Michael Goldman would be paid 5,000 euros per week and a Nikos Aliagas would pocket between 20,000 and 30,000 euros for each bonus, depending on the press revelations.
Former candidate for season 11, Clara Chouihki returned a few weeks ago to remuneration for the media Pile. She confirms: “I will finally be able to bust a myth. No, when you appear on TF1, you don’t become rich. Since I appeared on TV, people are surprised to see me in the metro…”, she began. “In principle, we are not allowed to give an exact figure, but we are literally paid the minimum wage. When we leave, we will have a sum of money which is quite significant, it is not in reality on the amount itself, it is on the duration,” she added.
Stamps of “the order of the strict union minimum” for the tour
Concerning the precious Star Academy tour, the figures are even more eloquent. According to an article in Le Parisien published last June, the fees initially offered to academics were “around the strict union minimum, i.e. 155 euros gross per concert”, according to a member of the team. Insufficient for the taste of the young artists of the previous promotion, several of whom also reported the physical and mental difficulty of holding on. Faced with the scale of the tour, which stretched to the limit, managers and lawyers were called to the rescue to defend their interests and renegotiate contracts.
As a result, Pierre Garnier and his comrades won their case. Their fee has been increased “between 350 and 500 euros per concert, like artists in musicals” according to a specialist lawyer. A notable progress but still far from the standards of the music industry. These contracts, described as “normal for developing artists”, would have allowed them to accumulate between 26,000 and 37,500 euros depending on their emoluments.
The Star Academy, which presents itself as a school and a springboard, obviously offers colossal media exposure, which must also be taken into account. But the lesson to be learned for the 16 new academicians who are preparing to live this extraordinary experience is clear: the dream has a price and sometimes you have to fight to increase it. Because if the Star Academy opens many doors, it does not yet completely fill the pockets of its students.