Dance Moms’ Nia Sioux Reveals How Much She Was Paid For Season 1: ‘It Was a Bad Contract’

Reality TV isn’t always a lucrative career, at least not for the child stars of Dance Moms and their parents, according to Nia Sioux.

On Tuesday, November 4 Sioux, 24, released a memoir titled Bottom of the Pyramid in which she detailed her experience on the Lifetime series.

Prior to filming the first season — which aired in 2011 — Sioux and her mom, Dr. Holly Hatcher-Frazier, signed a contract that was “less than $1,000 for the week for the both of us before taxes,” she wrote, according to E! News.

She explained that they were warned by their attorney that “it was a bad contract,” adding, “There was nothing in it that protected the talent. We had no rights to the content and could not use or say anything in correlation with the show without the network’s approval.”

Ultimately, Sioux, her mother, and castmates Maddie Ziegler, Kenzie Ziegler, Chloé Lukasiak, Brooke Hyland, Paige Hyland, and Vivi-Anne Stein along with their moms signed up for what they believed would be “a six-week documentary.”

“What did we have to lose?” she continued. “We were not in the driver’s seat, and it would be a while before we could amend the contract.”

Sioux spent seven seasons dancing for the cameras under Abby Lee Miller.

“We were working overtime and not making half of [what Miller was being paid],” she explained, recalling Miller “gloated” about her $20,000 per episode paychecks. “I wouldn’t even be able to pay for college tuition with what I’d made from Dance Moms.”

The show aired for eight seasons before coming to an end in September 2019.