The show premiered as The Seinfeld Chronicles on Thursday, May 31, 1990 on NBC. The show was not an immediate success. After the pilot was shown, on July 5, 1989, a pickup by the NBC network did not seem likely and the show was actually offered to Fox, which declined to pick up the show. It was only thanks to Rick Ludwin, head of late night and special events for NBC, for diverting money from his budget, that the next four episodes were filmed. (To which he admitted in an interview for NBC's special "The Seinfeld Story." In fact, because the first episode order came from the Late Night and Specials department, Seinfeld is technically not a sitcom, but a very long series of comedy specials. After nine years on the air and 176 episodes filmed (along with 4 clip shows,) the series finale of Seinfeld aired on Thursday, May 14, 1998. It was watched by a huge audience, estimated at 76 million viewers. Jerry Seinfeld holds both the record for the "most money refused" according to the Guinness Book of World Records by refusing an offer to continue the show for $5 million per episode, and another record for the Highest Ever Annual Earnings For A TV Actor[4], while the show itself held the record for the Highest Television Advertising Rates up until 2004, when the final episode of Friends aired[5].
