Dean McDermott Net Worth
He’s acted in over 80 productions. He hosted a national cooking show. He co-starred in a reality TV franchise that ran for seven seasons. And right now, Dean McDermott has a net worth of negative $200,000.
That’s not a typo.
This article covers Dean McDermott’s financial situation as of 2025–2026 — his career earnings, his debt timeline, his IRS trouble, and how his finances break down post-divorce from Tori Spelling. It does not cover Tori’s independent financial situation in depth, because that story deserves its own article.
What Is Dean McDermott Net Worth in 2026?
Dean McDermott net worth is an estimated -$200,000. Which means his liabilities, total — debts, unpaid taxes and legal obligations — are greater than whatever assets he now possesses.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, whose data is based on public court filings and financial disclosures, that negative figure is not the result of a singular devastating event but rather years of compounding financial mismanagement, lawsuit judgments and tax delinquency.
Quick note: a negative net worth doesn’t mean someone has zero dollars in their bank account. It means the math doesn’t work in their favor when you total up everything they own versus everything they owe.
Or maybe I should say it this way — he’s not broke in the sense of sleeping on a park bench. He’s broke in the sense that creditors have more claim on his financial life than he does.
The Debt Timeline: How Did It Get This Bad?
Dean McDermott Net Worth
Most coverage of Dean McDermott’s finances blurs his story together with Tori Spelling’s. Here’s his own financial deterioration, year by year.
2013 — The First Public Cracks
Tori Spelling publicly announced the couple was broke, claiming she had depleted an estimated $15–20 million inheritance from her late father, producer Aaron Spelling. Dean appeared on US Weekly the next day to walk it back, saying finances were “going well.” They weren’t.
2017 — Lawsuits Start Landing
City National Bank sued Tori and Dean after they did not pay back the $200,000 portion of a $400,000 loan. Around the same time, the American Express sued the couple for credit card debt of $87,000; meanwhile, the IRS pursued them for $260,000 in unpaid taxes. That’s more than half a million dollars in liabilities emerging inside a single calendar year.
Dean’s ex-wife, Mary Jo Eustace, also returned to court in October 2017 alleging he had stopped paying both alimony and child support — while allegedly vacationing in Iceland and at the Four Seasons in Punta Mita.
2023 — Welfare Line Photographs
In October 2023, Dean was allegedly seen in line at a Southern California welfare office and when the assumption of her being out of work came to town. He was also reported to have been living in a rented apartment with four others. It was also the same year he and Tori publicly stated they were separating after 17 years of marriage.
2025 — The IRS Bill Comes Due
In November 2025, it was confirmed that Dean and Tori together owe $1.7 million in combined IRS and state tax debt — roughly $1.2 million to the federal government and $500,000 to the California Franchise Tax Board. Dean separately carries $22,000 in student loan debt. The remaining shared debt is reportedly split 50/50.
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Dean McDermott’s Career Earnings: Where Did the Money Come From?
This is what competitors consistently miss. Dean wasn’t just “Tori Spelling’s husband.” He had his own income streams — none of them enormous, but real.
Acting Career (1988–Present)
McDermott made his film debut in 1988 and received more than 80 screen credits over the course of three decades. Other significant roles include Constable Turnbull on the Canadian series Due South (1995, 18 episodes), Mark Simpson on Power Play (1998, 26 episodes) and Alan Coyle on 1-800-Missing (2003). He had appeared with Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall in the 2004 Western Open Range — a bona fide theatrical release with a $22 million budget.
More recently, he appeared in recurrent roles in three seasons of Slasher (2016–2019) on Netflix/Shudder and joined CBC Television’s Pretty Hard Cases in 2021.
For example, a Canadian mid-tier television drama pays series regulars around $10,000–$30,000 per episode.His consistent work, while not A-list, wasn’t nothing.
Reality Television (2007–2014)
The Tori & Dean franchise on Oxygen and Lifetime ran across multiple series: Tori & Dean: Inn Love, Home Sweet Hollywood, sTORIbook Weddings, Cabin Fever, and True Tori. Dean served as executive producer on most of them. Reality TV production deals for starring talent on cable networks in this era typically ranged from $25,000–$75,000 per episode for the lead couple combined.
True Tori, the 2014 Lifetime series that documented the aftermath of Dean’s affair, reportedly drew strong ratings — Lifetime has never disclosed exact figures publicly.
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Culinary Career
Dean is a professionally trained chef — most of the readers don’t know that. He hosted Chopped Canada on Food Network Canada in 2014, has been a contestant on Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off (2013) and Top Chef Canada (2014). In 2015, he published a cookbook called The Gourmet Dad: Easy and Delicious Meals the Whole Family Will Love.
Advances for celebrity authors with midlevel platforms typically fall in the range of $50,000–$150,000. Filling in as a host of a national food competition show also brings in another $5,000–$20,000 per episode, by the way.
The Gap Between Earning and Keeping | Dean McDermott Net Worth
Here’s the thing: on paper, Dean McDermott had multiple legitimate income sources across three decades. The problem wasn’t that he never made money. The problem was the spending rate, the real estate decisions, and the tax non-compliance ran faster than the income.
Dean McDermott vs. Tori Spelling: Who Owes What?
Most people searching Dean McDermott net worth are actually trying to untangle the two. Here’s the clearest breakdown available from public filings.
Quick Comparison |Dean McDermott Net Worth
| Debt Category | Amount | Owed By |
| IRS Federal Tax Debt | ~$1.2 million | Jointly (Tori & Dean) |
| California Franchise Tax Board | ~$500,000 | Jointly (Tori & Dean) |
| American Express | $37,000 | Tori (reported 2025) |
| Medical Expenses | $30,000 | Tori (reported 2025) |
| Private Individual Debt | $288,000 + $70,000 | Tori (reported 2025) |
| Student Loan Debt | $22,000 | Dean (reported 2025) |
| City National Bank Loan (2017) | $200,000 (original judgment) | Jointly |
Source: Celebrity Net Worth, November 2025; court filings via US media reports
I’ve seen conflicting data on how the joint tax debt will be divided in the divorce settlement — some sources suggest Tori’s larger individual debt load may shift the 50/50 assumption. My read is that until a final divorce decree is filed, the joint figure remains Dean’s legal exposure.
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Dean McDermott’s Post-Divorce Financial Outlook
Tori filed for divorce in March 2024. The separation was announced in June 2023. So what does Dean’s financial picture look like going forward — independently?
Some experts argue that with his debt load, Dean’s only realistic path to solvency is a combination of steady acting work and a negotiated IRS payment plan. That’s valid if he can maintain consistent bookings. But if you’re looking at a 59-year-old Canadian-American character actor with a negative net worth and $1.7 million in shared tax exposure, “realistic path to solvency” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
His CBS Television work on Pretty Hard Cases through 2021–2022 suggested he’s still employable in quality productions. The culinary lane — hosting, branded content, cookbook follow-up — remains untapped at scale.
What most guides skip is the distinction between current net worth and earning trajectory. Dean’s net worth is negative today. His career isn’t over. Whether those two facts converge positively depends almost entirely on whether he resolves the IRS situation before it forces asset liquidation.
This guide covers Dean McDermott’s known financial history through early 2026. It does not address the specifics of any ongoing divorce asset division, as those proceedings are not yet fully public.
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People Also Ask: Dean McDermott Net Worth
Q: Is Dean McDermott really broke?
A: Technically yes — by 2025 his net worth is negative $200,000, which means he owes more than he owns. He was seen at a social service office in 2023, and lived with roommates at about the same time.
Q: Why does Dean McDermott have tax problems?
A: Dean and Tori Spelling owe a total of about $1.7 million — $1.2 million to the IRS and $500,000 to the California Franchise Tax Board, according to disclosures filed in November 2025.
Q: Where did Dean McDermott’s money go?
A: A combination of failed real estate investments, lavish lifestyle spending, longtime unpaid taxes and multiple lawsuit judgments — including from City National Bank and American Express — its money out of whatever he made during his acting career and on television.
Q: Did Dean and Tori Spelling lose their home?
A: The couple bought a home in the Santa Monica Mountains for $3.7 million in 2020. As of early 2026, however, there is no widely confirmed public report of foreclosure, although their financial affairs suggest the property’s status is unknown.
Q: How is Dean McDermott making money now?
A: His last confirmed acting work is Pretty Hard Cases on CBC Television (2021–2022). His career as a cook — including previous hosting work on Chopped Canada — is an income source he hasn’t fully utilized in recent years.
Disclaimer: Net worth figures for public figures are estimates based on publicly available information and reported court filings. This article is not financial advice.
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