Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza’s mother on Seinfeld, died April 2 in Palm Desert, California at 93. She played harridan Estelle Costanza starting in the fourth season of Seinfeld, through the series finale in 1998. 

Jason Alexander played George and Jerry Stiller played her husband Frank. Estelle Costanza had a unique knack for getting under George’s skin. 

Estelle Nussbaum was born in 1928, in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan, according to The New York Times, and grew up in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town. 

She moved back to New York in her later teen years. She married Sy Harris, had three children and was a homemaker before acting in dinner theaters and TV commercials.  

Harris’s TV credits, besides Seinfeld, included Law & Order, Night Court, Mad About You and ER. 

Harris voiced Mrs. Potato Head in the Toy Story film franchise. Her long list of film credits also include Out to Sea, Brother Bear and My Giant. ■

The debut of the latest off-net cycle of Seinfeld, the season 2 finale of Apple awards darling Ted Lasso, the entry of Marvel superhero film Black Widow into the Disney Plus free-with-subscription window, and the posting of Dave Chappelle's latest — and most controversial — Netflix standup special, The Closer, all captured major viewing time for the week of Oct. 4-10. 

But once again, Netflix’s local-language series sensation Squid Game dominated the U.S. subscription streaming business, garnering 3.021 billion viewing minutes in the U.S. for the week ending Oct. 10, according to Nielsen. It was the second consecutive week that Netflix's Korean-language original series drove more than 3 billion minutes of domestic viewing.

Since Nielsen started keeping tabs, the only other subscription streaming programs to reach or surpass 3 billion streaming minutes are Netflix series Ozark, The Umbrella Academy, You, The Crown and Tiger King. All of those benchmarks occurred during the 2020 COVID quarantine period.

Taking the No. 2 spot was Netflix’s 10-episode series Maid with 1.904 billion viewing minutes. The series, which debuted on Netflix on Oct. 1, stars Margaret Qualley and is based on Stephanie Land’s Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. Maid chronicles a single mother who turns to housekeeping to make ends meet. 

Netflix’s On My Block, which debuted its fourth and final season on the streaming service on Oct. 4, took the No. 3 spot, generating 776 million viewing minutes during the week of Oct. 10. The teen-oriented series follows four friends navigating their way through a high school set in the fictional Los Angeles inner city area of Freeridge. 

In September, Netflix ordered a spinoff of On My Block titled Freeridge. From On My Block co-creators Lauren Iungerich, Eddie Gonzalez, and Jeremy Haft, Freeridge follows a new group of friends who may or may not have unleashed a deadly curse, kicking off a new adventure.

Meanwhile, Mike Flanagan’s seven-episode Netflix supernatural horror mini-series Midnight Mass, which debuted Sept. 24, dropped two spots week over week to No. 4 with 707 million viewing minutes during the week ending Oct. 10.

Disney and Marvel’s superhero film Black Widow took the No. 5 spot with 676 million viewing minutes. Disney Plus debuted the film, staring Scarlett Johansson as the titular heroine, on July 9 as a $30 “Premier Access” premium title, and Black Widow garnered 541 million viewing minutes from July 9-11, despite that hefty price tag. Black Widow became available to all Disney Plus subscribers, sans the $30 viewing fee, on Oct. 6.

Coming in at No. 7 was Seinfeld, which debuted on Netflix on Oct. 1. The 1990s sitcom garnered 590 million viewing minutes from Oct. 4-10. Notably, according to Nielsen, about 25% of Netflix users streaming Seinfeld were born after the so-called “Show About Nothing” ended its groundbreaking nine-season “Must See” NBC run in May 1998.

Seinfeld was only the second most watched off-network show in subscription streaming for the week, with Netflix’s enduring kids series Cocomelon once again leading Nielsen’s sub ranking of “acquired series."

Taking the No. 9 spot was Apple TV Plus signature series, Ted Lasso, with 507 million viewing minutes for the week ending Oct. 10. Ted Lasso, which won seven Emmys in September, including Outstanding Comedy Series, dropped its second-season finale on Apple TV Plus on Oct. 8. Nielsen only recently started including Apple TV Plus shows alongside Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. 

Finally, comedian Dave Chappelle’s controversial standup special The Closer, which debuted Oct. 5, cracked No. 7 on Nielsen’s sub ranking of subscription streaming original shows, racking up 399 million viewing minutes. 

Previous Weekly Rankings:

Sept. 27 - Oct. 3: Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Is the First Show to Garner 3 Billion or More Viewing Minutes in the Post-Pandemic Era

Sept. 20-26: Apple TV Plus’ ‘Ted Lasso’ Is a Surprise Top 10 Entry, While Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Is the Totally Unsurprising No. 1 Finisher

Sept. 12-19: Netflix Phenom ‘Squid Game’ Got Off to a Surprisingly Slow Start

Sept. 6-11: Netflix’s ‘Clickbait’ Holds Off Surging ‘Lucifer’

August 30 - Sept. 5: Netflix’s 'Clickbait' Steals Audience Traffic From 'Manifest'

August 23-29: Netflix’s 'Manifest' Soars Back to No. 1 with the Debut of Season 3

August 16-22: Netflix’s ’Outer Banks’ Loses 37% of Its Audience, Still Finishes No. 1

August 9-15: Netflix’s Scrappy ‘Outer Banks’ Maintains the No. 1 Spot

August 2-8: Netflix's ‘Outer Banks’ Surpasses 2.1 Billion Viewing Minutes

July 26 - August 1: Netflix's 'All American' Edges 'Outer Banks' for No. 1

July 19-25: Netflix’s ‘Virgin River’ Maintains the No. 1 Spot

July 12-18: Netflix’s ‘Virgin River’ Ends Five-Week ‘Manifest’ Winning Streak

July 5-11: #SaveManifest Movement Picks Up Steam as Netflix Series Becomes the Most Watched SVOD Show for 5th Straight Week

June 28-July 4: Amazon’s $200 Million Bet on Paramount’s ‘The Tomorrow War’ Pays Off

June 21-27: ‘Manifest’ Continues Series Saving Flight Plan on Netflix

June 14-20: Netflix’s ‘Manifest’ Scores the Year’s Biggest SVOD Audience So Far

June 7-13: Netflix’s ‘Sweet Tooth’ Shows Bite for the Week of June 7-13

May 31-June 6: Netflix’s ‘Lucifer’ Bedevils SVOD’s Biggest Audience Since Season 3 of 'Cobra Kai’ Debuted in January

May 24-30: Netflix’s ‘Lucifer’ Has SVOD’s Biggest Week* Since ‘Coming 2 America’ Debuted in Early-March

May  17-23: Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’ on Netflix Leads a Rather Lifeless Week for the U.S. Streaming Biz

May 10-16: ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ Not Good Enough For Netflix to Renew, But Strong Enough to Lead the Week of May 10-16

May 3-9: Netflix’s $100 Million Bet on Sony’s ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ Pays Off

April 26 - May 2: Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ Edges Hulu’s ‘Handmade’s Tale' in Rebound Week for the Streaming Biz

April 19-25: Netflix’s ‘NCIS’ Off-net Run Wins Another ‘Easttown and Down' Week for the U.S. SVOD Biz

April 12-18: Disney Plus’ ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Builds to 855 Million Streaming Minutes and a No. 1 Finish

April 5-11: Give Netflix's 'Thunder Force' Five for Winning the Week of April 5-11

March 29 - April 4: Netflix’s ‘The Irregulars’ Tops the Easter Week Charts

March 22-28: - 'Falcon and Winter Soldier' Tops SVOD Originals

March 15-21: - 'Grey's Anatomy' Re-Runs Top SVOD Ranker

March 8-14: - ‘The Crown’ Got Royal Gains from Meghan’s Big Oprah Interview

March 1-7: - Amazon Tops the Charts for the First Time with ‘Coming 2 America’

Feb 22-28: - Netflix’s 'Ginny & Georgia' Leads the SVOD Biz

Seinfeld is coming to Comedy Central, with MTV Entertainment picking up the off-network sitcom in a new linear deal with Sony Picture Television.

Seinfeld’s full library of 180 episodes are leaving the show's longtime home of TBS as of Oct. 1 and will start airing exclusively on Comedy Central on Monday, Oct. 11. Comedy Central will prep fans for the move with a countdown stunt of favorite episodes on Saturday, Oct. 9. 

ViacomCBS acquired the show away from WarnerMedia in September 2019. At the time, ViacomCBS had planned to air it across its cable networks -- including Paramount Network, TV Land and Pop -- but with management changes across both the parent corporation and at the four cable networks, those plans have changed. 

Seinfeld also is moving its streaming home and will be available to stream on Netflix starting Oct. 1. Previously, it streamed on Hulu but it left that platform in June.

In the week ended Sept. 5, Seinfeld averaged a 0.7 live plus same day household rating in syndication, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Also Read: Survey: Reruns Are Big Draw for Streaming Subs

Seinfeld, which debuted on NBC in July 1989 and ran until May 1998, has aired in broadcast syndication since 1995 when it was distributed by Columbia TriStar Television, which was later absorbed into Sony Pictures Television. 

The show stars Jerry Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Jerry’s ex-girlfriend and current platonic pal, Elaine Benes; Michael Richards as Jerry’s eccentric neighbor, Kramer; and Jason Alexander as George Costanza, Jerry’s neurotic hard-luck best friend.

Seinfeld is a West/Shapiro Production in association with Castle Rock Entertainment. Seinfeld was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and executive produced by Larry David, George Shapiro and Howard West. Seinfeld is distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

Netflix has set an Oct. 1 date for the debut of Seinfeld.

The top subscription streaming service inked an undisclosed but undoubtedly lucrative five-year deal with Sony Pictures TV for exclusive streaming rights to 180 episodes of the classic 1990s-era sitcom, which has been a huge performer in broadcast syndication, off-net cable and video streaming for the last two decades. 

The show departed Hulu back in June. 

Seinfeld will unfurl on Netflix in 4K resolution.

“This is the first time we’ve taken a risk of this nature, going all in on 9 seasons at the jump,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement. “But Jerry [Seinfeld] has created something special with this sitcom that nobody has ever done. I truly think he and [creator Larry David] have enormous futures ahead of them, and I’m thrilled Netflix could be the home for them to grow their fan bases.”

“Larry [David] and I are enormously grateful to Netflix for taking this chance on us. It takes a lot of guts to trust two schmucks who literally had zero experience in television when we made this thing,” quipped series co-creator and star Jerry Seinfeld, in a statement. “We really got carried away, I guess. I didn’t realize we made so many of them. Hope to recoup god knows how many millions it must have taken to do. But worth all the work if people like it. Crazy project.”

Seinfeld ran for nine seasons on NBC, starting in the summer of 1989 as a lightly regarded, almost experimental comedy, starring its titular up-and-coming New York-based standup, and masterminded by show-runner David, previously best known for struggling to break through on Saturday Night Live. 

It departed what became NBC's vaunted "Must See" Thursday night schedule nine seasons later, in May 1998, watched by 76 million viewers and having transformed the art of TV comedy writing. 

While Sony and Netflix never disclosed deal terms, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier that the Seinfeld deal surpassed NBCUniversal's $500 million pocket-to-pocket transaction to move The Office off Netflix at the beginning of this year and put it onto Peacock. 

To mark the debut of Seinfeld on its platform, Netflix has compiled this teaser:

After watching two of its biggest performers, off-network comedies The Office and Friends, walk out the door and onto other subscription streaming platforms recently, Netflix is about to welcome a proven breadwinner. 

Sony Pictures TV’s Seinfeld will end its exclusive domestic SVOD run on Hulu June 23 and will migrate to Netflix, where it will be available in 4K and reside under the same roof as star Jerry Seinfeld’s standup specials, ostensibly on an immediate timeline (although the top subscription streaming service hasn’t yet announced a premiere date.)

The move is tied to a deal Netflix signed with Sony in 2021 to acquire global rights to all 180 episodes of Seinfeld, which has become the most profitable show in television history. Neither Netflix or Sony have released deal terms, but the Los Angeles Times pegged the value of the agreement as surpassing the $500 million pocket-to-pocket transaction executed by NBCUniversal to take The Office back from Netflix and put it on Peacock at the beginning of this year. 

Programming performance metrics in video streaming are, of course, tough to come by. But based on the nascent measurement program initiated by Nielsen in September of last year—one tracked weekly and closely by Next TV—it was clear that The Office was consistently Netflix’s top performing show before it left the platform at 11:59 p.m. on December 31 of last year. 

Likewise, Warner Bros. TV’s Friends departed Netflix precisely a year earlier as the platform’s most popular show of 2019, following WarnerMedia’s own $425 million pocket-to-pocket deal to put the classic NBC Must-See Thursday Night sitcom on HBO Max. 

As the media conglomerates, still slack-jawed that they allowed Netflix to exceed their own market capitalization on Wall Street by providing it with their family jewels, continue to close ranks, other venerable off-net comedies have been pulled back to their mother ships, as well—such as Warner Bros.’ Chuck Lorre series The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, which are also on HBO Max as part of a pocket-to-pocket deal reportedly worth $1.5 billion. 

So that leaves the so-called “Show About Nothing,” which debuted 32 years ago and elevated creator Larry David and star Seinfeld to the exalted level of comedy icon/geniuses, described by one critic recently as the TV sitcom equivalent to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. 

Netflix remains streaming’s most powerful platform for off-network shows—comedies like the Emmy-winning Schitt’s Creek and New Girl routinely routinely draw 400 million or more streaming minutes in a given week, according to Nielsen. And procedural dramas like NCIS and medical melodrama Grey’s Anatomy are often the most popular shows among the major U.S. SVODs on weeks in which no big original series breaks through. 

And certainly, in the aftermarkets, Seinfeld has been unrivaled, entering into an unprecedented fifth contract cycle of broadcast syndication in 2015, the year in which the Financial Times calculated its total revenue haul to have reached $3.1 billion. According to Broadcasting & Cable data, Seinfeld generated $2.3 billion in its first three syndication cycles alone. Cable channel deals to outlets like TBS have generated another $379 million. 

Then came video streaming—with Hulu paying a now-seemingly-very-affordable $160 million in 2015 for six years of exclusive U.S. subscription streaming rights to Seinfeld. 

The question now is, more than 21 years after Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer signed off in the show’s baffling May 1998 finale, how many more laughs can classic gags like "The Soup Nazi," "Schmoopie" and "The Close Talker" generate? Will new generations, raised in a world in which Seinfeld's pioneering brand of comedic storytelling has been widely assimilated, be interested in the original recipe?

There's probably no better platform than Netflix to find this out. 

“Seinfeld is the television comedy that all television comedy is measured against,” Neflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in 2019, at the time of the acquisition. “It is as fresh and funny as ever and will be available to the world in 4K for the first time.”

Don't tell streaming services pouring billions into original content, but according to a new survey from What If Media Group, reruns appear to be a bigger driver of subscriptions.

Also Read: Will Amazon Go Deep for NFL

According to a new survey, 29% said they would be willing to subscribe "just to re-watch a favorite TV series," compared to 26.5% who said they would do so to access a new show.

What If said that the finding could be a byproduct of pandemic fatigue and the desire for the comfort of familiarity in uncertain times.

It is younger viewers who are more likely to sign up for a service to get an old favorite, with 38.5% of the 20-29 age group saying that was the case.

“While older viewers grew up with the concept of appointment TV, on-demand content has been the norm for younger generations,” said Jordan Cohen, chief marketing officer at What If Media Group. “As such, I would expect to see streaming companies continue to pursue acquisitions of tried-and-true franchises to bolster their appeal to these groups."

"While Netflix was criticized in some quarters for spending some $500 million in 2019 to acquire the rights to stream Seinfeld," said What If, "it may well be a valuable tool in attracting subscribers to make the switch from Hulu, which previously held the rights."

Also Read: Disney Plus Tops 100 Million Sub Mark

The survey was conducted online in the U.S. March 2, 2021 among 2,097 adults. The margin of error (to a 99% confidence level) is plus or minus 2.5%.

Stars of Seinfeld, including creator Larry David and cast members Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander, are taking part in the “Fundraiser About Something” livestream Oct. 23, discussing their favorite Seinfeld episodes and sharing stories from behind the scenes. 

Seth Meyers, host of Late Night With Seth Meyers, hosts the event. 

“Jason Alexander, Larry David and I are going to sit around and shoot the shit,” Louis-Dreyfus said in a video she shared on social media. 

The event is a fundraiser for the Texas Democratic Party. “With their off the charts early voter turnout, Texas Democrats are making us all believe that Texas can turn blue,” said Louis-Dreyfus. “Polls are virtually tied for races up and down the ballot and we’re gonna need your help to make it really happen.”

The Texas Democratic Party invites Seinfeld fans to “chip in any amount to join the Seinfeld stars as they share hilarious behind-the-scenes stories about their favorite episodes! Trump cannot win without Texas. Polls are virtually tied, and anything you donate will be immediately put to work to turn Texas blue.”

The party said most are giving $38 in a nod to Texas’s 38 electoral votes. 

Jerry Seinfeld and Michael Richards are not scheduled to appear in the event. Louis-Dreyfus hinted at “a special guest or two,” quipping about Bruce Springsteen and the Pope. 

The livestream happens at 7 p.m. CT Friday. 

Louis-Dreyfus took part in a Veep livestream event earlier this month that was a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The cast and director of This Is Spinal Tap held one for Pennsylvania Democrats. 

The rapid takeover of the television business by video streaming companies appears ready to claim one of the most venerable models of traditional linear TV, the half-hour network sitcom.

In a broad-skewing report outlining the trend, veteran Deadline Hollywood TV writer Nellie Andrea says that independent studios (i.e. those not vertically integrated with a Big Four broadcast network) are looking to exit the business because of what are now unfavorable economics. 

Most notable case in point: Sony Pictures TV, producer of venerable sitcom hits including Seinfeld, Married…With Children and The Goldbergs, has “informally” advised its network TV partners that it will no longer be making half-hour comedies using the traditional business model. (Note: This isn't something Sony has formally announced.)

Deadline also reported that Lionsgate TV is in talks with Disney/ABC to develop a new business model for the sitcom, which has fallen into disrepair as streaming not only siphons away the first-run broadcast TV audience, but also off-network syndication. 

The traditional sitcom model calls for production studios to absorb most of the risk for a hoped-for aftermarket goldmine should a popular show exceed about four seasons and 100 episodes. 

With only three new sitcoms introduced in the fall of 2019 renewed for a second season, and beleaguered broadcast and cable networks no longer spending hundreds of millions of dollars on repeats, deficit financing comedies isn't a viable model, producers are finding. 

“Downstream economics have changed drastically,” one industry insider told Deadline.

As for Sony Pictures TV, its Seinfeld—the most profitable sitcom in history—helps illustrate the point. 

Sony began selling Seinfeld into off-network syndication in 1995, just over five years after the series began its landmark nine-season network run on NBC. Seinfeld generated a reported $4.7 billion for Sony through 2017, exploiting not only numerous cycles of off-network syndication deals with broadcast station groups, but also licensing agreements with cable networks like TBS, which agreed in 1998 to pay $1 million an episode for the basic cable repeat rights to the show. 

For Sony, the Seinfeld gravy train has never stopped. 

Last year, ViacomCBS took over linear off-network rights to Seinfeld after Netflix paid $500 million to steal the streaming rights away from Hulu.

That Seinfeld has been able to sustain its asset value speaks not only to the enduring quality of the show, but also to its scarcity—few TV programs are able to rise to that level of zeitgeist stature anymore, much less survive long enough to put 180 episodes in the can.

Indeed, Seinfeld ran in in the last era of broadcast TV primacy, one which not only preceded the explosion of viewing choices wrought by streaming, but the rise of basic cable in the late-'90s and aughts. 

For her part, Deadline’s Andreeva notes that only a few shows over the last 10 years—Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory—have reached anywhere near this kind of after-market gravitas. 

Meanwhile, further challenging the sitcom model, comedies don’t have near the international value that dramas do. Networks used to start underwriting the cost of successful shows right around season four, but that's happening less and less. And networks demand “stacking rights” in their first-run model, making it difficult to double dip into streaming with concurrent SVOD rights deals.

As Andreeva also notes, perhaps more than anything, streaming companies like Netflix are offering much better deals for independent distributors, paying licensing fees beginning in year one that often cover all of the production costs. Producers aren't in line for vast profitability in success. But don't go broke waiting to find gold, either. 

TBS is set to air a 14-episode Friends Thanksgiving marathon, followed by a three-hour collection of Seinfeld for the Holidays starting Nov. 27 at 10 a.m., the network announced today. 

Friends will air 10 Thanksgiving episodes, along with four episodes on dating troubles, while Seinfeld picks up at 5 p.m. with the Festivus episode, The Strike.

Friends Begins With the Following:

10 a.m. – The One Where Underdog Gets Away

10:30 a.m. – The One with the List

11 a.m. – The One with the Football

11:30 a.m. – The One with Chandler in a Box

Noon – The One with the Thanksgiving Flashbacks

12:30 a.m. – The One Where Ross Got High

1 p.m.–  The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs

1:30 p.m. –  The One with the Rumor

2 p.m. –  The One with Rachel's Other Sister 

2:30 p.m. – The One with the Late Thanksgiving 

3 p.m. –The One with the Evil Orthodontist

3:30 p.m. –The One with the Routine

4 p.m. –The One with the Fake Monica

4:30 p.m. –The One with the Ick Factor

Seinfeld for the Holidays Begins:

5 p.m. – The Millennium

5:30 p.m. –The Label Maker

6 p.m. –The Mom and Pop Store

6:30 p.m. –The Red Dot

7 p.m. –The Pick

7:30 p.m. –The Strike

TBS, the cable network responsible for Seinfeld’s continued success in syndication, will honor the sitcom’s 25th anniversary by airing its 25 most popular and acclaimed episodes over the course of a week. 

Beginning Monday, June 30, the network will air four episodes of Seinfeld each night, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

The anniversary celebration will begin with an airing of “The Pen,” with classic episodes such as “The Chinese Restaurant,” “The Soup Nazi” and “The Puffy Shirt” scheduled to air throughout the remainder of the week. On Friday, July 4, TBS will also air both episodes of two-parter “The Boyfriend.”

The final day of the celebration, Saturday, July 5, coincides with the 25th anniversary of the series’ first telecast on NBC.