Just got finished watching a CNBC report on the lucrative marketing of SEINFELD reruns, and it got me thinking in terms of what Mr. Seinfeld's actual thought processes might have been in regards to making his choice to end the show this year.
As we all know, Mr. Seinfeld was offered quite a bit of cash to stay another year: $110 million (plus other bonuses/arrangements that probably weren't revealed to the public). That's one hell of a salary indeed, but consider: the syndicated SEINFELD is in a renewal phase across the country. As CNBC reported, the asset is now trending against the normal convention of value depreciation in the syndicated sitcom market; it is actually in a supplier's market whereby independent stations will have to shell out, in some cases, 100% more money than they did the first time around to acquire and program the show (the report pointed out that MASH is just about the only other sitcom to accomplish this feat due to its inverse relation with the norm: it's growth potential experienced an upward bias, as did SEINFELD's potential [as a quick sidenote, I think THE SIMPSONS is in a similar situation, albeit on a much less magnitude]).
When Mr. Seinfeld was offered $110 million to forge ahead, I must say I was more than surprised when he turned down that Forbes-400 generating sum. After all, $110 million is $110 million, no buts about it. I bet he was at odds with himself as to whether or not he should continue. But after seeing tonight's report, I think it's obvious what happened: there was just no better time to bow out. Whether logical business reasoning or not, the market believes it is justified in shelling out huge sums of liquid reserve in order to license SEINFELD due to the lucid snowballing of mass cultural awareness of the coming climax of the SEINFELD era. Mr. Seinfeld, in my mind, would have easily committed to another season for the money which was being pondered, but that may have meant the iron may not have been hot enough when he struck. The contracts being signed across America right now may have insured a better strategic position for the next wave of SEINFELD syndication, and even if Mr. Seinfeld in the long run would have had a bigger net worth if he had done one more season and settled for slightly less from the syndie market, it still is a pretty damn good decision, considering a) he doesn't have to do another pressure-grind-filled year of a network sitcom, and b) he enjoys the beneficial side effect of being able to say he left at the top instead of risking another 365 days. I'll tell you, the Hollywood mind is clever.