Acquired
02:31:44 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:31:44] S1: Who also, yes, gets all that back end that we were talking about. [02:31:47] S0: The tenor of my voice should not be anything around, like, surprise or didn't earn it. But it's just like to underscore, these are separate things getting paid as the person making the show slash acting in it and the ownership. [02:31:59] S1: Yep. The show, though... I mean, look. You can argue whether seasons eight and nine are as good as the Larry seasons. [02:32:07] S0: They're certainly different, but they're more ambitious. [02:32:09] S1: They are more ambitious. Yeah. The only way that they could find to sort of move past Larry was to try and do bigger stuff. [02:32:16] S0: And there's some classics. I mean, true true all timers in there. The Bizarro Jerry. Yep. The chicken roaster, the Kenny Rogers episode. Yes. The Andrea Doria. Muffin tops, is that in there? The pothole. [02:32:29] S1: Van Buren boys? [02:32:30] S0: Yep. Yada yada yada. Yep. You're right. Muffin tops, the Summer of George. I mean, this is season eight. Get Like firing on all cylinders. Season nine, the butter shave, the voice hell. Oh. Serenity now is season nine. [02:32:45] S1: That's right. Yeah. Terry's still [02:32:47] S0: in got a bigger role. The slicer, the dealership, the reverse peephole, the wizard. These are all season nine. [02:32:54] S1: Yeah. Yeah. So creatively, definitely different, but still excellent. Ratings and ad sales wise, though, for NBC. [02:33:03] S0: That's changed quite a bit.
02:33:03 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:33:03] S0: That's changed quite a bit. [02:33:04] S1: The show definitely does not miss a beat with Larry leaving. So in 1996, Seinfeld makes a $150,000,000 of profits for NBC after paying ad agency commissions and all the production fees that they're paying to Castle Rock for, you know, whatever it is, 80% of the actors' salaries and sets and the production and all that. In 1997, the show makes $200,000,000 in profits for NBC. So that's the revenue they got from advertising minus the cost of paying Castle Rock for the show. [02:33:37] S0: It's $200,000,000 that [02:33:38] S1: And I think also the cost of commissions to ad agencies for the advertising. I think it was actual profits. [02:33:45] S0: Because to put that in context, NBC's entire profit during that era was about $1,000,000,000 a year. So 20% of the network's profits were coming from Seinfeld directly. [02:33:56] S1: And probably more than that because those directly attributable numbers actually understate the value of Seinfeld because the way NBC would sell their ads... Let's say you were General Motors. You wanted to place a $30,000,000 ad buy for Seinfeld that season. You can't do that. The only way you can get $30,000,000 worth of media on Seinfeld is to buy $200,000,000 of media on prime time at NBC that season. [02:34:28] S0: Bundling, baby. [02:34:28] S1: Bundling. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Then there's all the value that Seinfeld delivers in terms of launching other shows or propping up other shows, you know, just like Cheers did for Seinfeld.
02:34:28 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:34:28] S1: Bundling. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Then there's all the value that Seinfeld delivers in terms of launching other shows or propping up other shows, you know, just like Cheers did for Seinfeld. [02:34:37] S0: Right. So it's how much revenue did it catalyze and then also that it served as a launch pad for other shows. Yep. [02:34:45] S1: That sets up the 1997 cast renegotiation of their salaries. [02:34:52] S0: Because they haven't been making anything near where Jerry was, and they have no back end. It's not like the cast of the show owns the show like the creators do. They're paid actors. They're employees. [02:35:03] S1: They just get their union guild standard residuals in the show, which is peanuts. I think Jason Alexander has been quoted as saying that each of them, probably lifetime in standard guild residuals from Seinfeld, got $250,000 or so. [02:35:18] S0: But they were making good salaries at this point. [02:35:20] S1: Yes. Early [02:35:21] S0: on, it was nothing. But then by this point, I think it was a $160,000 per episode that they were making now that they were big stars in the number one show. [02:35:30] S1: But they start getting pretty nervous because they're like, no. This show's days might be numbered. Like, we don't know how long Jerry can keep this going, how long Jerry will want to keep this going. Larry's already left. They're both rich beyond anyone's dreams here. They realize that after the eighth season, they kinda have a now or never moment where they need
02:35:30 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:35:30] S1: But they start getting pretty nervous because they're like, no. This show's days might be numbered. Like, we don't know how long Jerry can keep this going, how long Jerry will want to keep this going. Larry's already left. They're both rich beyond anyone's dreams here. They realize that after the eighth season, they kinda have a now or never moment where they need [02:35:51] S0: to hold out and negotiate for much higher salaries. Which is incredibly awkward because the relationships between the actors and Larry and Jerry was always fantastic on set. Yes. It is notoriously a very professionally run show. There's no, like, drama between people. Whenever issues came up, they would resolve them and move on and try to get [02:36:13] S1: to the root of it. And they would actually help each other with their acting, which other TV shows... Like, there was an unwritten rule that actors didn't give notes to other actors. [02:36:20] S0: Right. So it creates this big awkwardness of we're all gonna hold out.
02:36:20 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:36:20] S0: Right. So it creates this big awkwardness of we're all gonna hold out. [02:36:25] S1: Right. I mean, at the end of the day, Jerry holds all the cards because he's the one who decides whether the show continues and how. Right. Nonetheless, they get it all done at the deadline for the ninth season. And Jerry supports the cast by telling NBC and Castle Rock that he will agree to come back for a ninth season in 1997 into 1998, but only if the whole rest of the cast also signs on. Like, he's not gonna come back if they aren't able to sign all three of the other cast members too. Yep. So they reach a deal, $600,000 per episode for each cast member for one season, plus an option to extend that same deal for a second next season, hypothetical tenth season if the show comes back, which is all dependent on Jerry.
02:37:18 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:37:18] S0: Yes. So on season nine, the cast effectively did secure what they had set out to do. It wasn't, like, the highest number that they originally asked for, but it did get them the amount of money where they don't need to work again. Yes. Because all of them are extremely typecast now. It's like the worst thing as an actor to be on a number one show in an extreme role like any of these roles And not have back end. And not have made your entire rest of your life's income from that show. Because it's just hard to get other parts. So at 600 k an episode, that's $14,400,000 for each of Julia, Michael, and Jason in that season. Good. Like, yeah. Not what it would be if you had back end, but, like, you could live your... The rest of your life on that when you may have cut off your ability to make big money from acting ever again in the future. So with Jerry now at $1,000,000 an episode, each of them at 600,000, that means that the cost per episode of talent is 2,800,000, which now means that the cost of each episode is, I don't know, $3,500,000. But NBC is absolutely happy to pay this because [02:38:34] S1: As we talked about this. [02:38:35] S0: Giant advertising profits. Yeah. So $7,080,000,000 in in production costs for the season. Okay. We're gonna make 200,000,000 directly from ad sales, let alone all the other secondary benefits that come from it. [02:38:47] S1: Yep. And we should note here too that Jerry's $1,000,000 per episode salary made him the highest paid TV actor in history at that point here in season nine.