Why Did Ending Seinfeld on Top Keep Paying?

Ben Gilbert says it is the taste left in people's mouths. David Rosenthal says that is why, three decades later, Netflix has paid a billion dollars over a decade to the people who own Seinfeld. David Rosenthal says the show stayed culturally relevant because Jerry Seinfeld got off the stage while the audience was still screaming. Leave then, Jerry says, and they never forget you.

David Rosenthal estimates that Jerry Seinfeld has earned somewhere around three quarters of a billion dollars from syndication sales, DVD sales, and other back-end deals over the past 30 years. David Rosenthal argues that a huge part of that value was set up and protected by the Christmas 1997 decision to end the show and go out on top. In the 28 years since Seinfeld ended, and the 31 years since it first entered syndication, the show never went off the air. Interest and viewership stayed very high. Ben Gilbert has seen estimates of 3x to 5x as many people watching after the finale as while the show was on the air. The majority of Seinfeld's audience came after that Christmas decision.