How Much Did Jack Welch Offer Jerry Seinfeld?

David Rosenthal says Jack Welch told Jerry Seinfeld the show had not peaked. Ben Gilbert says Jerry was exhausted after 10 years on Seinfeld and felt he had not started his life. David Rosenthal says Jerry was 43. Ben Gilbert says Jerry worried the show would keep going past its peak. The only way to go out on top was to leave before the peak, because Jerry was not going to time it perfectly.

David Rosenthal says Jerry was not outright declining, but he started demurring. He told Jack he appreciated it and did not know he could keep the show going. The group told him not to decide yet. After the meal, Jack took Jerry Seinfeld to a corner, wrote on a piece of paper, and handed him a firm offer for his salary next season: five million dollars an episode, twenty two episodes, one hundred and ten million dollars. Ben Gilbert says that was if he came back for a tenth season. David Rosenthal says Jerry was already the highest paid TV actor in history at one million dollars. The offer was five times his record salary. Ben Gilbert says the one hundred and ten million was eleven percent of NBC's total profit for the year. David Rosenthal says that was salary, not the budget for the show. Ben Gilbert says Jerry already had the back end. David Rosenthal says Jerry said he would get back to them.

Ben Gilbert says Seinfeld's last season was the only show in history to command over a million dollars a minute for advertising. Only the Super Bowl had done it before.