Castle Rock Entertainment; Getty Images
Steve Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump's recently appointed chief strategist, is a polarizing figure.
He is best known today for running the far-right website Breitbart, with critics having accused him of anti-Semitism and of spreading white-nationalist views. But few know he also made a fortune off "Seinfeld," the sitcom known for its Jewish humor.
Before we get around to how he made millions from "Seinfeld," we have to begin with a young Bannon. After earning an MBA and serving in the military, he worked in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs in the 1980s.
In 1990, he and some colleagues decided to form their own boutique investment bank called Bannon and Co. It had a media focus and would administer several big Hollywood deals. One in particular would become very fortuitous for Bannon.
In about 1991, Bannon was tapped to help sell Castle Rock Entertainment for his client, Westinghouse Electric, according to Bloomberg. Castle Rock was the producing studio behind "Seinfeld." Bannon brought Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Entertainment, to the table. But when it was time to close the deal, Turner didn't have enough cash.
To get the deal done, Bannon decided to waive some of his fee in exchange for some ownership in five TV shows. One of the shows was "Seinfeld," then in its third season. It wasn't yet the big hit it would later become; at the time, it was watched by 18 million people and ranked a sad No. 42 on TV.
But Bannon had some vision.
"We calculated what it would get us if it made it to syndication," he told Bloomberg. "We were wrong by a factor of five."
In fact, "Seinfeld" ended its nine-season run averaging 38 million viewers in the No. 1 spot on TV.
In reruns, the show is estimated to have generated $3.1 billion by 2013, according to the Financial Times. And as TheWrap points out, if Bannon were entitled to even just 1% of that, he would've made $31 million on syndication.
It's an interesting twist to Bannon's story, since the newly appointed Trump chief strategist (a position that essentially makes him a right-hand man for Trump), has been accused of being anti-Semitic by many in media. At the same time, "Seinfeld" is known for its Jewish-American, New York City-centric humor courtesy of creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.
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