Holly Willoughby was reportedly paid a huge sum to front Netflix show Celebrity Bear Hunt alongside Bear Grylls.

Holly Willoughby has reportedly made a splash with a lucrative payday from her latest gig on Celebrity Bear Hunt.

The popular star, who left This Morning in 2023, is now co-hosting the new Netflix series with Bear Grylls. The duo have taken 12 celebs to Costa Rica for a series of challenges, teaching them survival skills while trying to evade capture by Bear.

The show launched on Netflix earlier this week, offering over seven hours of thrilling content.

Despite this, Holly’s screen time totals just 24 minutes throughout the entire series of Celebrity Bear Hunt. She averages a mere 180 seconds of appearance per episode across the eight episodes.

Holly Willoughby reportedly earned close to £1 million (Image: Tom Dymond/Netflix)

Holly reportedly pocketed close to £1million for hosting duties, which works out at about £40,000 for each minute she’s seen on screen, reports the Mirror.

“Viewers will be surprised just how little she features in the final version of the programme given all the attention there’s been surrounding the show,” a source told the Sun.

“Holly is a huge talent and very popular with viewers, plus she has decades of experience of presenting big TV shows, particularly live TV which requires a level of excellence few presenters have,” they added. We have been to Holly’s representatives for further comment.

Yet in the final cut of Celebrity Bear Hunt, she seemed to take a backseat to leading man Bear, and even received less screen time than the baker’s dozen of celebs vying for survival. At the series launch event earlier in the week, Bear couldn’t help but heap accolades on Holly for her contributions to the show.

He expressed: “I just want to say as well to Holly, you were such a key part of this, not just for them but for me also. You were a light and love to all of these people.”

Holly graciously responded: “As soon as you’ve got Bear’s name attached to anything, you know you’re in for an adventure of a lifetime. This show really does have a little bit of everything. You 12 celebs that were involved in this, you said yes and it was the beginning of a real adventure for you all. You were so brave and I think it’s because of you, you can get anyone to do anything, you’re inspiring.”

Celebrity Bear Hunt takes place in Costa Rica (Image: Tom Dymond/Netflix)
The adventurous line-up included Spice Girl Mel B, tennis icon Boris Becker, design maestro Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, TV journo Steph McGovern, and past rugby ace Danny Cipriani. They were in good company with Strictly judge Shirley Ballas, hip-hop artist Big Zuu, The Saturdays’ Una Healy, funnyman Joe Thomas from The Inbetweeners, catwalk star Lottie Moss, actor Kola Bokinni and runway sensation Leomie Anderson.

Holly was out of the public eye for just shy of a year before she made her television comeback on You Bet! with Stephen Mulhern and Dancing on Ice.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Holly shared that her return to TV was inevitable, emphasising the significance of resuming her normal life. She commented: “I’d be an idiot if I said no. [Money’s] not the reason I make a decision. I’m not saying, how much are they going to pay me for this, and how much are they going to pay me for that? But by definition my work is a business.”

She continued assertively: “I’m not going to shy away from saying that. I think, sometimes, when women earn money people see it as a greedy, ambitious thing, but when men earn money? ‘Oh, he’s incredible, I want to be like him! ‘ I don’t have any shame in saying it’s my business, it’s my work. It’s also all I have known. It’s what I do.”

Celebrity Bear Hunt is now on Netflix.