76 million Americans watched the Seinfeld Together finale. Today’s Biggest Joke Gets 5 Million

Jerry Seinfeld was reportedly paid $5 million per episode for season 10.

He refused. Seinfeld and Larry David each earn an estimated $110 million a year in sales. All 6 Friends are negotiating pay to reach $1 million per episode for seasons of 18 to 24 episodes. Their sales and broadcasting deals still pay each of them about $20 million a year, 22 years after the show ended.

The Seinfeld finale had 76 million viewers. The Friends finale had 52.5 million. The Big Bang Theory finale in 2019 had 23.4 million. Abbott Elementary, the biggest comedy on television right now, averages 5 to 7 million.

Abbott Elementary is the highest paid network comedy operating today. Quinta Brunson makes $350,000 to $400,000 per episode as creator and star. Tyler James Williams and Sheryl Lee Ralph make $250,000 each. Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, and Chris Perfetti made $200,000 each. William Stanford Davis makes $100,000. For a full 22-episode season, Brunson takes home about $7.7 to $8.8 million before producer fees. It’s the best comedy deal yet and it’s still less than half of what the cast of Friends makes per episode before adjusting for inflation.

The leftovers were real money. The network reruns the paid cast decades after the show ended. Broadcasting pays little or nothing. During the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, actors shared residual checks ranging from $0.03 to $27 for streaming hits. Friends actors make more money a year right now for a show that hasn’t been on the air for 22 years than most comedians on the air will make for everything they do.

Network sitcoms have 22 to 24 episodes per year. The characters stay in your house for 6 months. Streamed comedies get 8 to 10 episodes. You watch them on the weekend. Fewer episodes mean a lower total payout even if the quality of each episode looks decent. Fewer episodes also means less time to form the kind of attachment that has made Friends and Seinfeld a part of American life.

The 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes shut down the comic’s development for months. The WGA strike lasted 148 days. SAG-AFTRA spanned 118 years. Comics are hit hard because comics depend on writers’ rooms more than any other genre. An entire year of pilots has been delayed or canceled.

3 new comics are trying to get established right now.

• Adults (FX/Hulu). 20-somethings in Queens. A collection of many unknowns. 8 to 10 episodes. Renewed for Season 2.
• Overcompensating (Main Video). Created and played by Benito Skinner, who came from TikTok. 8 episodes. 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Renewed production for season 2. A24.
• I love LA (HBO). Created by and starring Rachel Sennott. Influencer-culture satire. 8 to 10 episodes.

The salaries of the three have not been reported. Industry estimates for new comedies with up-and-coming actors put pay per episode in the range of $50,000 for regular series. Creator stars like Skinner and Sennott are likely to get more from producer deals. None of them will see the money from the sale. Streaming is not for sale.

TikTok replaced the 22-minute clip with an endless feed of 60-second clips. The sitcom’s function as the default source of daily humor has been transferred to an algorithm.

Monoculture is no more. Seinfeld had 76 million people watch one episode in one night. No show will do that again.