MLB.com ran an article yesterday where they talked about Keith Hernandez and his royalties from appearing on Seinfeld. Turns out that it was from an NJ.com interview from April. Regardless, it was news to me and here’s the part I found interesting:
What do you make per episode, if you don’t mind me asking?
It used to be almost $1,000. It diminishes as the years go by. So it gives me around $3,000 per year. I’ll take it. For doing nothing. So you can imagine what Jerry gets. The principal actors, what they get.
Source: Mike Vorkunov
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Not as much as I thought but it really is only the 2 episodes(or is it one episode in 2 parts?)Plus the short appearances in the finale.
Jason Alexander recently said he doesn’t get royalties from Seinfeld.
And I always thought that was the case, because it was widely publicized that Ray Romano was the first to give royalties from syndication to the other actors besides himself (and the show’s creators.) They actually took money they were going to receive and gave a certain percentage to the other actors.
BTW, it was reported recently that Jerry was worth around $800 million.
So I don’t understand how Jason Alexander is not getting royalties, but Hernandez is. I’m not saying anyone’s lying, I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m missing something in the terminology of what people get?
“Unlike co-creators Seinfeld and David, Richards, Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander do not own a stake in “Seinfeld,” which significantly lessens what they earn from the series’ postmortem run. The three co-stars receive SAG-AFTRA residuals and a cut of DVD sales, but those cuts don’t come close to the estimated $400 million per year that Seinfeld and David will earn from the latest syndication deal.”
Here’s another one, this from 2004 and by Jason Alexander himself:
“Julia, Michael and I, during our big renegotiation for the final year, asked for something that I will go to my grave saying we should have had, and that is back-end participation in the profits for the show.
“It was categorically denied to us, which forced us to then ask for ungodly salaries,” he said.
“We make very little, standard Screen Actors Guild residuals for the reruns,” he said.
“I’m not ashamed to talk numbers. I would say in the years that we’ve been in syndication, Julia, Michael and I have probably individually seen about a quarter of a million dollars out of residuals, whereas our brethren have seen hundreds of millions of dollars. Seinfeld has a profit of over a billion dollars.”
The article is worth reading if you’re interested in this stuff — http://www.stanthecaddy.com/pact-brings-peace-to-the-seinfeld-cast-discuss.html
Very interesting. Thanks.
Alexander got paid enough per episode, so he doesn’t need royalties.
That’s what Howard Stern said to him during the interview.
I’m not saying he’s poor, just that I don’t understand why guest actors get royalties but not the main cast.
Dang, you know Wes Parker is straight up rolling in Brady Bunch money…