Something for the weekend: Cast members of popular reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex (Towie) have boycotted television studio ITV’s annual summer party in strike against their £100-a-day pay packet.
Stars of the show were well jel of the wages awarded to other celebrities on ITV’s roster, leading to many Towie actors ripping up their summer party invites and refusing attendance, according to newspaper The Sun.
However, 24-hours after the party concluded, ITV created four new pay bands for the Towie cast, based on their popularity and tenure.
Those classified within the highest pay band, including Bobby Norris, James Bennewith, Georgie Kousoulou and Chloe Sims, now earn £450 per episode. This compares to £350 an episode for the second bay band, £250 a day for the third and £90 an episode for newcomers testing their popularity.
When Towie first aired in 2010, the Essex-based stars were initially paid £50 per episode; this increased to £80 a day, and then £100, prior to the stars raising awareness of this proper muggy state of affairs with an impromptu party strike.
Former cast members, such as Gemma Collins, Tommy Mallett and Amy Childs, on the other hand, have since become millionaires in their own right.
An anonymous cast member informed The Sun: “We gave Towie bosses an ultimatum: pay us or we won’t work. We all refused as a group to go to the ITV summer party. We said we won’t turn up for work and to show just how serious we were, we didn’t turn [up] to the recent ITV do. But they gave in the following day and a lot of us have had a pay increase.”
A spokesperson at Towie further told The Sun: “We would not discuss individual salaries, however it is untrue to suggest that cast boycotted the ITV summer party; several current cast members, including Pete Wicks, Chloe and Demi Sims, were in attendance and thoroughly enjoyed the event.”
Here at Employee Benefits, we think Towie cast members are going to be feeling pretty reem after receiving their new and improved pay slips. At the end of the day, we just hope the next round of ITV party invites cause a little less agg...
