‘Blues Clues’ Alum Steve Burns Says Show Paid Less Than “Every Waiter I Ever Knew”

“Every waiter I ever knew made more money than I did for the first many seasons of that show,” revealed Burns on the Soul Boom podcast, noting that he considered the part a “side hustle” at first.

“My real gig was, I was a voiceover guy. I fell into that early,” he noted, explaining he only auditioned for Blue’s because he thought he’d be voicing a cartoon character.

Burns added, “Because I thought it was a voice thing, I went to the audition. And when I got there, there was a camera in the room. And I thought, ‘Oh, shit. I better do something.’ Yeah. And so I looked at the script, and, you know, I figured … I’m gonna act the shit out of this.”

Although the low pay couldn’t have helped, Burns revealed in the 2006 Nick special Behind the Clues: 10 Years of Blue that he left the show because he felt he was growing out of the role. “I knew I wasn’t going to be doing children’s television all my life, mostly because I refused to lose my hair on a kid’s TV show. And it was happening fast,” he said at the time.