Kandi Burruss, the star of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” is reportedly the highest-paid housewife on the network.
Many wonder how this 5-foot-3 powerhouse from College Park, Georgia, was able to achieve this feat, clocking a salary over names like Lisa Rinna, Lisa Vanderpump, Bethenny Frankel, and Nene Leakes, who have claimed Queen Bee statuses during their tenure with the franchise. It comes down to her value and ability to use that to negotiate.
According to Brian Moylan’s 2021 book “The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives,” Burruss earns close to $2 million a season and commands the salary because she is the star of the show that receives the highest television ratings out of all of the franchises.
Impact and Longevity
After 14 seasons, RHOA continues to average over 1 million views per episode, TV Deets, is an outlet dedicated to providing analytics and news for reality television.
Burruss has been on the show for 13 of those seasons, making her the longest-running consecutive housewife of any franchise. One of the reasons why Bravo pays her so substantially is because of her popularity with viewers.
E-News rated her in their “Official Ranking of The Real Housewives,” 10 out of 144 women cast in the franchise’s universe, bested by only one of her cast mates from her show, Nene Leakes. Before leaving the show for good, Leakes, who started with the series with the original squad in 2008, was the top-paid housewife of all the shows.
Since joining RHOA in 2009, the network has given Burruss several series, showcasing her, her business acumen, and her family.
In 2013, she debuted a competition-based reality show called “The Kandi Factory,” where 16 artists were judged and mentored by Burruss, the Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter, and actor before RHOA, in the pursuit of their dreams to become a star.
The following year, Bravo debuted another reality show with Burruss at the center, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta: Kandi’s Wedding,” documenting her marriage to Todd Tucker. This was followed up by another show “The Housewives of Atlanta: Kandi’s Ski Trip,” in 2015.
In 2017, the network got behind a reunion based-reality show, where Kandi would reunite with her former band members from the group that made her famous. Titled “Xscape: Still Kickin’ It,” the series followed the four women’s efforts to get past hurts spawned from their early celebrity — and Burruss outworking and getting paid more than the members back in the 1990s.
In 2018, Bravo explored giving Burruss her own web series called “Kandi Koated Nights,” an adult series based on “the digital dating age” and “the do’s and don’ts of relationships.”
Most recently, she has been able to parlay a show to promote her family and businesses called “Kandi & the Gang,” which debuted in 2022.
Net Worth Winning
Currently, Burruss boasts a net worth of $30 million.
While Burruss has made strides in reality television, she has been pulling in money since she was a teen in the music world as a singer, songwriter, and producer.
She received her first platinum project with Xscape’s debut album “Hummin’ Comin’ at ‘Cha” in 1993. But her industry breakout was when she started getting her songs placed on albums in 1999.
That year, she wrote chart-topping songs. For LaFace artist Pink, she wrote “There You Go” and for Columbia recording act Destiny’s Child she wrote “Bills, Bills, Bills.” However, it was writing the hit TLC song “No Scrubs” that won her a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
Since then, the mother of three has written for acts like ‘N Sync, Joe, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Usher, Alicia Keys, and Ed Sheeran, who gave her one of the top two biggest hits of her career, “Shape of You.”
The CEO of Kandi Koated Entertainment, she owns and distributes Bedroom Kandi high-end sex toys designed to look like makeup products, with a plan to expand to offer accessories for playtime like lingerie, lotions, body sprays, and candles.
As an actor, she stars in the hit Showtime series “The Chi” as the ruthless political strategist Roselyn Perry, where she is going into her third season.
Restaurants and Real Estate
The entertainer purchased her first home for $250,000 in 2002 and sold it for the same price 15 years later. Her second property, a 7,000-square-foot Atlanta mansion, was purchased in 2012 for $512,000 and has almost doubled its value, estimated at least $1 million today.
She has two Atlanta-based restaurants in three locations, Old Lady Gang, Old Lady Gang Southern Cuisine, and Blaze Steak and Seafood.
At 46, Burruss is nowhere close to stopping and is already slated to be the queen of the next season of her hit housewives show. Announced to return with a peach are Kenya Moore, Sanya Richards-Ross, Drew Sidora, Sheree Whitfield, and Marlo Hampton.
According to Distractify, Janell Stephens, the owner of Camille Rose Naturals, will also be joining the RHOA cast.
