“What we put on the table was unheard of.” Jerry Seinfeld was set to receive an astronomical $100 million for Seinfeld season 10, but turned it down
Jerry Seinfeld gave up the astronomical money he was offered for the 10th season of the TV series so he could focus on other things that are important to him.
Seinfeld is a popular comedy TV series that years ago was a real hit of the NBC. It is not at all surprising that the station aired it for as many as 9 seasons. And hardly surprisingly, it would be most eager to create at least one more, which it tried to convince the sitcom's creator, Jerry Seinfeld, to do.
NBC was willing to spend a lot of money just to get Seinfeld's 10th season made. During an interview with Fox News, Warren Littlefield, a former director on NBC, talked about how they tried to persuade Seinfeld to continue the TV series by offering an astronomical $100 million for one season. They were confident that such a sum would not be refused by anyone.
Over $100 million. We offered him $5 million an episode. We didn’t mess around. What we put on the table was unheard of. We went in there with a staggering sum and there was tremendous confidence that no one could walk away from it.
Jerry Seinfeld, however, refused and presented a really good reason – he reportedly confessed that he needed to focus on himself and his life, so he could not devote more time to the TV series. Therefore, although NBC's offer was tempting, Seinfeld turned it down.
He came to me and said, “I don’t have a life, I’m not married, I don’t have kids.” We gave it everything we had, he was tempted, but in the end it was a quality of life decision.
The artist's decision may come as a surprise, since giving up such money seems difficult, however, money is not more important than life, and Seinfeld proved that he had his priorities properly arranged and after nine successful seasons of the TV show, he now wanted to focus on his own life and on starting a family, which he managed to do just after the sitcom ended.
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