Oh, Chris Harrison: the mainstay of our Monday nights, always there to tell us when there is but one remaining rose on the table at the rose ceremony ("Ladies, Colton, this is the final rose"), arguably there for the most right reasons of all. Since 2002, Harrison has hosted the ever-growing Bachelor franchise, lending his love expertise and crisis-management skills to many a leading man and lady, as well as taking the occasional nap in a Bachelor Mansion closet.
In last night's episode of The Bachelor, an exasperated Colton Underwood removed himself from the pool party and its Caelynn/Hannah B. drama to have a powwow with Chris Harrison, who seemed to have spontaneously materialized from where he was waiting in the wings right when Colton needed him most. As he shepherds Bachelor #23 through his Journey, it is clearer than ever that Harrison is good at his job. It's also clearer than ever that Harrison has aged like a fine wine since season one.
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Harrison's tenure as Host with the Most has come with a lot of money. Though ABC has not disclosed his salary, apparently a TV Guide article from 2011 (which has since been taken down) reported Harrison made $60,000 per episode. This is a whole lot of cash, but it's even more staggering when you do the math. He has hosted 23 seasons of The Bachelor, 14 seasons of The Bachelorette, three seasons of Bachelor Pad, and five seasons of Bachelor in Paradise. If each season averages 10 episodes, that's basically 45 seasons at an estimated $600,000 each. And if $60,000 was his rate per episode in 2011, we can only imagine he's getting more buck nearly a decade later. Needless to say, The Bachelor has made Harrison a rich man.
In addition to The Bachelor, Harrison has served as the host of other shows like Designers' Challenge, Hollywood 411, and You Deserve It. He has also hosted the syndicated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? since 2015 and has hosted the Miss America pageant nine times.
And who better is there to write about love than The King of Love himself? Harrison penned a romance novel called The Perfect Letter in 2015, which HuffPost called "the best worst book we've ever read." And he wears still more hats: Harrison also holds the title of official Bachelor wedding officiator, and most recently officiated Arie Luyendyk and Lauren Burnham's wedding earlier this month.
Celebrity Net Worth lists Harrison's yearly Bachelor salary at $8 million, and his overall net worth at $16 million, while The Richest values Harrison at $12 million. In any case, the Bachelor franchise doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so we can only expect this figure to climb up with each new journey to find love.