Steve Wilkos has unquestionably had one of the most unique careers of anybody involved in reality television. As a matter of fact, it's almost like he has lived something of a double life, with one foot in the world of reality television and one foot in the world of law enforcement. Thanks to his efforts, he now has a net worth of $6 million. Needless to say, that's a lot more than most retired police officers can lay claim to. If you're wondering how he's done it, sit back and read. You'll quickly find that this is one of the more interesting stories you'll ever read.
Humble Beginnings
When Wilkos was a child, the thought of him working in reality television never really occurred to him. As a matter of fact, he had one of the most typical upbringings you can imagine for a child living in America. His father was a police officer and his mother worked at a school that taught people how to become beauticians. Wilkos had two siblings and for the most part, he led a fairly typical life. The thing that really turned him toward law enforcement was a seven-year stint in the United States Marine Corps after high school. Once he was back home, he decided to follow in his father's footsteps. He served on the Chicago Police Department for 14 years, from 1990 until 2004. Oddly enough, it was this job that would ultimately allow him to get his foot in the door of reality television and lead to his $6 million net worth.
The Start of a New Career
While Wilkos was working on the Chicago Police Department, he had a friend that asked him if he wanted to earn some extra money working a side job as a security officer on the “Jerry Springer Show”. Like most police officers with a family, he obliged and ended up doing such a good job that he was asked back to serve as a security officer for several more tapings of the show. It didn't take long before Springer himself took a real liking to Wilkos, so much that he even allowed him to guest host more than a few times. By 2001, Wilkos was working full-time as a security guard for the show, even though he was still serving with the Chicago police force. After a few more years with the police department, he ultimately decided that he would retire there and focus his attention on his new career. Thanks to his connection with Springer and the fact that he had started to make a name for himself by serving as a guest host on the show from time to time, he ended up with bit parts on other shows. While some of them were other reality shows, he also had short guest appearances on sitcoms like “Roseanne.” Of course, all of this added to his net worth because he was making money from his job as a security guard on the “Jerry Springer Show” while simultaneously getting additional pay for serving as a guest host. He was also being paid for all of these other guest appearances that he was doing on television. His net worth started to add up and a small contribution to that also came in the form of his police pension. However, he wasn't finished with trying new things and he wanted to push the boundaries of his career even further than he already had.
An Uncommon Job With a Big Payday
There was a time when Jerry Springer was on another popular competition show called “Dancing with the Stars.” During that time, he asked Wilkos to host the show the whole time he was involved with the dancing competition. Eventually, this led to Wilkos getting his own show that was much in the spirit of the “Jerry Springer Show”. It also gave him an opportunity to earn a significant amount of money that would contribute to his net worth. It's also worth noting that this particular show was shown on a YouTube channel called The Steve Wilkos Entertainment Channel and monetized. It's estimated that he gets more than 462,000 views per day, earning him approximately $757,000 a year from this channel alone. If you really want to get technical about things, that's the money he's earning just from the number of page views based on ads. It doesn't count money from endorsem*nt deals, sponsorships or anything else. It's also important to realize that this isn't his only other endeavor aside from the things that have already been mentioned.
While he doesn't do it full time (as a matter of fact, he's only done it once so far), he did agree to do a short stint as a wrestler for AEW. That's a fairly big stage for anyone to appear on and as such, it involved a significant payday. Although exact numbers have not been made public, it is known that this contributed significantly to his net worth. When everything is put together, Wilkos now has a net worth of about $6 million, as previously discussed. Clearly, he enjoys working in the entertainment industry and he also likes trying new things when it comes to his professional life. Those two facts, coupled with the fact that he knows how to save money, have allowed him to get a network that rivals a lot of Hollywood actors that have been in the business for years. He may not be a household name, but he definitely knows how to make money. More importantly, he knows how to keep the money that he's already made without spending more than he actually has. Since he continues to enjoy participating in these types of endeavors, it's only fair to assume that he will eventually add to his net worth as opposed to detracting from it.
