Acquired
02:41:49 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:41:49] S0: Auth used to mean proving you are you. Now it means proving your agent is allowed to do this specific thing as you right now with limits. That's how you get in the door with enterprises now, and it's why OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, Perplexity, and hundreds of other AI startups build on WorkOS. You can learn more at workos.com/auth-md, and just tell them that Ben and David sent you. [02:42:13] S1: Alright. So Jack Welch invites Jerry to brunch at the end of nineteen ninety seven. They set it up in the then CEO of NBC, Bob Wright's apartment in New York City on the 38th Floor of the Trump Tower. In attendance from the NBC GE side are Jack Welch and Bob Wright, the NBC CEO. Helping prepare for the meeting were Warren Littlefield, president of entertainment, and Don Olemire, who is NBC's head of LA operations, which is the, you know, location of the operations of the show of Seinfeld since it's filming in LA, which I still can never get over that Seinfeld was filmed in LA. But [02:42:57] S0: Even some of the exterior shots of the apartment are recreations of New York buildings in LA.
02:42:57 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:42:57] S0: Even some of the exterior shots of the apartment are recreations of New York buildings in LA. [02:43:06] S1: I know. I know. I don't like to think about it because it feels wrong. Right. So that's the GE NBC side. And then Jerry is obviously there, and George Shapiro and Howard West, the talent managers, agents are are there too. They settle down to brunch, and the NBC GE team brings out slides, like presentation slides. Jack Welch starts giving the presentation to Jerry Seinfeld over brunch, making a presentation arguing that the show has not yet reached its peak. It can go higher. It can get bigger. You can do more. Jerry, we have the data. The audience wants you back. It's not over. You haven't reached the top. Wow. Jack concludes his pitch to Jerry with this line. You know, Jerry, I go all over the world. Everybody who talks to me, they only wanna know one thing. Is Jerry Seinfeld coming back for another season? [02:44:17] S0: And that line about it hasn't peaked, that is one of the things that is going through Jerry's mind, in addition to, like, exhaustion and having really not started his life because he's just been doing this for ten years. [02:44:29] S1: Yeah. He's 43 years old at this point in time. Right. [02:44:32] S0: There is the concern that the show will keep going past its peak, and he doesn't wanna see it. So the only way to go out on top is to go out before you reach your peak because you're not gonna time it perfectly.
02:44:32 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:44:32] S0: There is the concern that the show will keep going past its peak, and he doesn't wanna see it. So the only way to go out on top is to go out before you reach your peak because you're not gonna time it perfectly. [02:44:44] S1: Yep. Yep. Yep. All that's going through his mind. So Jerry starts demurring after Jack's pitch sales job here. He's not outright declining, but he's making noises. He's like, oh, gosh. Appreciate it, Jack, but I don't know that I really can can keep it going. He said, alright. Well, don't make a decision now. Don't make a decision now. The meal ends. Everybody stands up. Jack says, Jerry, come over here for a minute. I wanna talk to you one on one. He takes Jerry Seinfeld to a corner of the room. Jack takes out a piece of paper, and he starts writing some numbers down on the paper. He writes down $5,000,000. 22. 22 episodes. A 110,000,000. He hands it to Jerry. He says, this is a firm offer for your salary for next season. $5,000,000 an episode. [02:45:51] S0: If you come back and do a tenth season. [02:45:53] S1: Jerry is already the highest paid TV actor in history at $1,000,000, and Jack Welch is handing him a piece of paper. Not not not just, like, GE executive Jack Welch. Mister operational efficiency, six sigma black belt. Yes. People are replaceable. Go listen to our Home Depot episode about how cost focused Jack Welch and GE is is making Jerry an offer, a firm offer, to five x his already record salary. [02:46:25] S0: That 110,000,000 is 11% of NBC's total profit for the year Yes. That is being offered to
02:46:25 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:46:25] S0: That 110,000,000 is 11% of NBC's total profit for the year Yes. That is being offered to [02:46:32] S1: him. As salary to Jerry. Yes. Not as, like, budget for the show. [02:46:37] S0: Who already has the back end in the show. Yep. [02:46:39] S1: This is how valuable Seinfeld is to NBC, to GE. So Jerry says, well, alright. Thank you. I'll get back to you. [02:46:49] S0: Keep in mind, listeners, that Seinfeld is the only show in history from this last season to ever command over a million dollars a minute for advertising rates, a feat only previously accomplished by the Super Bowl. [02:47:02] S1: Yep. Yep. So the group disperses, and Jerry says to Howard and George, alright. Let's go for a walk. They go for a walk in Central Park. They stop, and they sit down on a bench at 81st Street and Central Park West. And Jerry looks at George, looks at Howard, and says, guys, when I was 21 years old, I sat on this same bench with my dad when I told him that after college, I was gonna go into stand up comedy as my career, and he thought it was a great decision. He backed me all the way. He said he wished he could have done it. So what do you think we should do? Howard looks at Jerry and he says, gosh, if it's me, I'd love to do one more season. George looks at Jerry, and he says, if it's me, I think it'd be great to go out while we're on top. Howard says, you're the guy making the show. It's your call. Couple days later, 12/26/1997, day after Christmas, The New York Times runs an article.
02:47:02 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:47:02] S1: Yep. Yep. So the group disperses, and Jerry says to Howard and George, alright. Let's go for a walk. They go for a walk in Central Park. They stop, and they sit down on a bench at 81st Street and Central Park West. And Jerry looks at George, looks at Howard, and says, guys, when I was 21 years old, I sat on this same bench with my dad when I told him that after college, I was gonna go into stand up comedy as my career, and he thought it was a great decision. He backed me all the way. He said he wished he could have done it. So what do you think we should do? Howard looks at Jerry and he says, gosh, if it's me, I'd love to do one more season. George looks at Jerry, and he says, if it's me, I think it'd be great to go out while we're on top. Howard says, you're the guy making the show. It's your call. Couple days later, 12/26/1997, day after Christmas, The New York Times runs an article. [02:48:28] S0: Oh, they run this article on a one Yes. In the top left corner of the paper. [02:48:33] S1: Yep. [02:48:34] S0: Front page news.
02:48:34 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:48:34] S0: Front page news. [02:48:37] S1: Seinfeld says it's all over, and it's no joke for NBC. The article reads, Seinfeld, the most popular television comedy of the nineteen nineties and the centerpiece of the most profitable night in television history, will stop production at the end of this season, Jerry Seinfeld, the show's creator and star, said yesterday. Yesterday being Christmas day nineteen ninety seven. Mister Seinfeld said his decision did not hinge on money. Instead, he wanted to follow the tradition of stand up comedians and leave the stage with the audience wanting more. Jerry would later say about the decision, I thought about the audience. How are they feeling? Where are they? I was trying to perceive it like a comedian on the stage. When you've been on the stage for a pretty long time, and nine years is a healthy run and they're still screaming, if you can get off, they'll scream even louder. They'll never forget you. That was the best business decision that Jerry Seinfeld ever made. Because on the surface and at the time and for a long time after, the narrative around this is like, oh, man. Jerry, He was so burned out, and it was comedic timing. It was artistic. It was personal. But, man, it was a terrible business decision to walk away from $5,000,000 an episode. [02:50:08] S0: And you're about to make the argument that it's because they went out on top that syndication went nuts. Is that what I'm hearing? [02:50:16] S1: That's... The argument I wanna make is that, actually, it was the best business decision that Jerry Seinfeld ever made.