Successful reality TV stars turn 15 minutes of fame into long-term careers

Once destined for a world of seedy nightclub appearances, a new generation of reality TV stars is proving there’s life, love and serious money beyond their 15 minutes of fame.

Angie Kent is apologising profusely as she navigates the “shocking” mobile phone reception while driving into Byron Bay.

Kent is juggling the last of her media commitments en route to a well-earned holiday — the calm before her arrival in Sydney next week when she begins yet another phase of her unlikely career.

Angie Kent is one of the real success stories from the reality TV world.

She is the poster girl for a new breed of reality star trying to turn their 15 minutes of “fame” on any number of TV vehicles (but usually Married At First Sight) into a career.

Kent turned her original small-screen role on Foxtel/Channel 10’s Gogglebox into stints on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here and then The Bachelorette.

Now she is set to debut her first podcast after signing a deal with Nova to produce 10 episodes of her own show Angie Tries It.

It has, she admits, been quite the “adventure”.

A lucrative one, too.

Kent recently signed the contract on her first house.

One of Kent’s recent Instagram posts.

“If someone had have told me 10 years ago, when I was fresh out of uni at 21, that I would be where I am now and have done everything I have done, I wouldn’t have believed you in a billion years,” Kent says.

She even has a film on the way — a low-budget horror flick opposite Lincoln Lewis set for release in August.

“It’s not something I really planned … it all just kind of happened. I put the call out to the universe and it delivered.”

While Kent is the high-water mark for reality “stars”, a new world of revenue streams awaits those willing to sell themselves.

MAFS alumni Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson launched a podcast this week. Picture: Supplied

Sponsored content (spon con) can earn some as much as $10,000 per paid Instagram post — a figure that doesn’t include add-ons like free holidays, dinners, hotel rooms, clothing and beauty treatments.

A hit podcast can also translate into big bucks — as much as $6000 per episode for those hitting 100,000 downloads.

Now celebrity video messaging app Cameo allows fans to pay their favourite “stars” for video messages. Its talent list reads like a who’s who of reality TV.

MAFS “villain” Bryce Ruthven made headlines recently when he surfaced among the hundreds of minor “celebs” selling his personal greetings for $30 a pop.

Ruthven is also hedging his bets on a podcast and, with his MAFS partner Melissa Rawson, launched What Happens After … this week. It swiftly topped the Australian podcast charts.

“Obviously when you go on a show like MAFS you are not oblivious to the fact that you are going to get a profile of some kind,” says Ruthven, who quit his job in regional radio prior to his MAFS turn.

Successful Bachelor couple Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich are spon-con superstars Picture: Instagram

“I knew that the show could be an opportunity to give me something else that other radio announcers might not have. That was definitely a part of it, but everyone has their motives for going on the show. And anyone who says they don’t is kidding themselves.”

Podcast host Megan Pustetto, whose top-rated So Dramatic! podcast charts the lives and careers of reality TV subjects, agrees.

“Oh, 100 per cent, but I don’t think it started out that way,” Pustetto says.

“I think in the beginning people would go on shows like The Bachelor in what was a genuine quest for their soulmate. But now it really has completely transformed into a means for people to command that media attention and then transition into the ultimate career goal.”

Some originals managed to do both.

MAFS lovebirds Jules and Cam’s baby son has 50,000 of his own followers. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Ex-Bachelor contestant Tim Robards and wife Anna Heinrich are among the titans of the reality scene, having parlayed their brief dalliance with TV fame back in 2013 into full-time careers as spon-con superstars and now parenting bloggers.

It’s rumoured both can command as much as $12,000 for a post. Robards declined an interview.

Joining them are Jules and Cam — aka Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant of MAFS season six — whose on-screen love story has since been translated into more than 700,000 Instagram followers, a shapewear empire and now a baby “spon con” side hustle since the arrival of son Oliver (who has 50,000 followers).

Matty J and Laura Byrne with daughter Marlie-Mae and their Volkswagon Tiguan at Bondi. Picture: Toby Zerna

Matty Johnson, who married his 2017 Bachelor match Laura Byrne, has spun his TV fame into a production company, Pineapple Productions, as well as a radio gig and, most recently, a spot in Dancing With The Stars.

But there are others who seem a little too desperate.

“I know of reality celebs who just say yes to absolutely everything that lands in their inbox. And eventually their followers figure that out and that’s when you lose trust,” says Pustetto.