Great point about the SS vs the others J. It really is mind boggling once you get a tv cable contract of all the FREE merchandise you get given to you. It's the same with sports figures who make gazillions too. Tiger, LeBron and MJ get more free merch than alot of freeloaders on welfare do. Kinda fugged up, the rich get richer kinda thing.
Actually, it isn't like the endorsements pro athletes receive. Air time for a show on the Outdoor Channel is over 100k for a season. That is 13 shows. The folks that want to have their own shows have to find sponsors to cover that cost, the cost of their hunts, and hope to have a little left over to live on. There are only a very few ( Lee and Tiff, Jay Gregory, the Drurys, etc) that actually make a decent coin doing the television shows. The vast majority do not make enough to make it worthwhile for a sane person to pursue. A great many of the commercials you see during any given show are owned by Outdoor Channel and do not benefit the producers of the show...this is why you will see muzzy commercials mixed in during a show that is sponsored by Rage...you get the point. Additionally, most of the folks doing shows are very poor at promoting their sponsor's product in a tactful way...and that is why most of them do not do well financially. If they don't do a good job of selling the product, they have to find new sponsors each season and first season sponsor are not willing to invest heavily for what is likely going to be weak promotion at best.
Greg Ritz is winning in the outdoor television industry above all others IMO. Not only does he have his own businesses to promote, he has assembled a stable of stars. He is the agent for Lee and Tiff, Waddel, Jim Shokey...the list goes on. That dude is slick.