“When I started Bar Rescue,” host Jon Taffer tells Bro Bible, “I said to the network, ‘Listen guys. I don’t want to be set up with bars that are easy. If I’m going to do this, I want to get the worst disasters in America. Find me stuff that I can’t do easily, give me challenges.”
Fans of the show know that the network listened, and that Jon’s task to fix these bars up is often a tall order. “I NEVER realized they could be this bad, to be honest with you,” Jon adds. “You typically don’t see depths of failure that bad in normal life. These people are disasters.”
Bar owners or anyone who wants to nominate a bar or nightclub can fill out a straightforward application, though show producers often do open calls in cities where they plan to film, or on some occasions, even call the bar themselves to inquire whether they’re interested in appearing on the show.
Jon tells Bro Bible he’s “astonished” at how hard the bar owners fight back when he’s trying to help them remodel.
“For some of these people,” he explains, “they’re $900,000 in debt. They’ve lost their homes, their lives are on the line. They can’t afford to buy me lunch, much less pay me a fee for being there! So I show up with a checkbook and 30 years of experience. You think they’d be thanking the heavens. It doesn’t happen that way.”
Source : https://www.distractify.com/p/who-pays-for-bar-rescue