Seinfeld Was the Show About Nothing but It Managed to Make Millions for the Cast: Here’s How Much The Stars Earned

A testament to the massive impact the Seinfeld show has left is the people’s clamor for a rerun. Alas, streaming execs heard us and announced it will arrive on Netflix in 2021 after its contract with Hulu is done. The charm of the hilarious series was so enamoring that it is concluded as one of, if not, the best ‘90s pop culture masterpieces that effectively launched its stars to another level of stardom. Some may argue that Friends have accomplished the same recognition and achieved a similar feat but Seinfeld is arguably the top placer.

Ironically, Seinfeld is referred to as the “show about nothing,” but is never like that when it comes to cultural influence. If you take into account how massive it was at the time and how much fans still want to watch it now, you can say that it was a success – which left us asking, how much did the cast of the series earned?

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David got together in 1989 to make a pilot called The Seinfeld Chronicles, which was later renamed, Seinfeld. The show aired for nine seasons and was able to rake in a whopping $4 billion, so it is safe to say the cast went home with fat paychecks. The story revolves around the lead star’s character and his friends, ex Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), best friend George (Jason Alexander), and neighbor Cosmo (Michael Richards).

Jerry Seinfeld’s Earnings 

Jerry Seinfeld got $1 million per episode during the show’s last season.

In season 1, Jerry earned $20,000 per episode and if you do the math, he went home with $100,000 for the first run. For the second and third runs, he pocketed $3.5 million in total after securing $40,000 per episode.

He got richer by $7 million because of his $100,000-earning per episode in seasons 4, 5, and 6. The actor got a neat increase in his salary for seasons 7 and 8 — it was boosted to $500,000 per episode — which means he added $23 million to his fortune. during the last run of Seinfeld, the main star got $1 million per episode, totaling $24 million for that run along and which had made him the first TV personality to receive such salary.

Other Stars 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, along with Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, were awarded $600,00 each by the final season

Unlike Jerry, Jason, Michael, and Julia were said to have earned nominally during the earlier runs of the show. But they negotiated their way before season 5, they were able to secure $150,000 per episode so each of them got $3.8 million at the time.

In 1997, the three stars tried their luck once more and seek a massive increase in their salaries, about $1 million per episode and backend ownership points, however, they were denied. By the final season, they were awarded $600,000 per person, which totaled $15 million each.

Friends vs Seinfeld 

Unlike the main casts of Seinfeld, the Friends’ main cast members got their salary increases altogether

If you look at the cast members’ earnings, one of the major differences was that the stars of Friends were all equal when the show started — that is, nobody was more famous at the time, so whenever they negotiate, their salaries would increase altogether. They were able to secure backend points, too, unlike the three stars of Seinfeld.