When it comes to the exciting voice behind UFC fights, Joe Rogan is the first name that comes to mind. Rogan seems to have quite the schedule as he juggles between his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and comedy tours. Not to mention his play-by-play commentary at UFC Pay-per-views. However, newer fans are unaware that UFC hasn’t always been the 55-year-old’s home from the very beginning.
Joe had already touched the ladder of fame and success through the hit TV show Fear Factor. Joe began his early career as a stand-up comedian and was smart enough to parlay that success into finding acting gigs. Soon after, the martial arts fanatic found himself signed to a 6-season deal with the Fear Factor show from 2001 to 2006. This role further boosted Rogan to land more TV gigs.
Per moviecultists, Rogan was paid a handsome amount of $100,000 per episode for his host duties on Fear Factor. Considering the 150+ hosted episodes, it’s easy to conclude that they paid him a whopping $15 million. Keeping in mind that the show aired in the early 2000s, Joe bagged a lot more than several actors do in today’s date.
It is worth mentioning that Joe had found tremendous success on NBC’s hit comedy series NewsRadio, where played the role of Joe Garrelli, the resident electrician. The show lasted 5 seasons from 1995-1999 and people started recognizing him for his humor.
What does Joe Rogan think about his first TV role?
Apart from his comedy tours and stand-up specials, Rogan bagged quite a few TV show gigs during his lifetime. Aside from TV roles, the podcast host has earned short but memorable roles in Hollywood flicks as well. He’s played in Here Comes The Boom, Bright, It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, and Zookeeper. He portrayed fictional characters in some movies and just himself in others.
Rogan began his TV career by playing in the 1994 sports comedy Hardball. He played one of the leads, Frank Valente, in the series. However, the show only aired nine episodes. Reflecting back upon it, Rogan shares,
“I was the young a**hole ballplayer. [1994] was when I had to move to California. I was miserable and 26 there, so weird. You know what, man? when it first started out, it was fun. and then what happened was, with TV shows you have a lot of funny writers. and these guys who wrote it originally were really good. But they had written ‘Married with children’ and Simpsons. and the network had decided, for some reason, they weren’t strong enough to run the show.”
Rogan continues, “They were only writers, not real showrunners. So the team brought in this guy who was a showrunner and he was terrible. I didn’t get along with him at all. They were actually close to firing me or him. Because the guy’s writing was dogs**t. I was crazy back then, I didn’t give a f**k. Never thought I was gonna be an actor in the first place. I was very close to killing my sitcom career completely, just by having no filter.”
Per Rogan’s UFC contract, the Texas resident now earns a hefty $50,000 for every PPV event he covers. However, the biggest chunk of his net worth comes from his infamous 2020 Spotify deal. According to Forbes, Spotify paid just a bit less than $200 million to gain exclusive rights to his podcast as part of a multi-year deal.
