Test Audiences Trashed ‘The Seinfeld Chronicles’

Jerry Seinfeld was proud of his bad report card. During a 1997 appearance on 60 Minutes, he showed Steve Kroft a framed copy of the test audience reaction to The Seinfeld Chronicles, the sitcom title that was eventually shortened to Seinfeld. “This is the audience test on the pilot back in 1989,” Seinfeld said. “‘Pilot performance weak.’”

Kroft read another choice assessment: “No segment of the audience was eager to watch the show again.”

“Here’s another great line,” said Seinfeld. “‘Viewers felt that Jerry needed a better backup ensemble.’ Can you imagine a better backup ensemble in the world than those three people?” 

TV Guide got hold of the report as well, noting other highlights from the thumbs-down review: 

• “The more typical sitcom scenes of Jerry and his friends at common day locations were negatively received — as one viewer put it, ‘You can’t get too excited about going to the Laundromat.’”
• “Viewers were unclear whether Jerry worked as a comedian or if his routines took place outside of the show as commentaries. The movement back and fourth was also considered abrupt and somewhat disorienting, particularly to older viewers.”
• “None of the (supporting characters) were particularly liked.”
• “Despite the slice-of-life approach, the program was considered only mildly realistic and believable, and many did not identify with the things with which Jerry was involved.”

On a scale of Strong to Moderate to Weak, The Seinfeld Chronicles was considered Weak. Actually, it was worse than that. According to one NBC executive, “This was a weak Weak.”

“It wasn’t a Cosby Show or a Golden Girls screening,” remembered Warren Littlefield, an executive in NBC's entertainment division at the time. “Those rooms exploded at the end with applause.”

Littlefield felt like there was something there, but his boss, Brandon Tartikoff, wasn’t seeing it. “Too New York, too Jewish,” said the Jewish exec from New York.

The test audience reaction “was a dagger to the heart,” said Littlefield. “We were afraid to go forward with something that was so strongly rejected by research.”

And they almost didn’t. NBC gave The Seinfeld Chronicles a green light for four episodes, “which is the smallest number of episodes ever ordered by a network,” Seinfeld told Kroft. “Four! I mean, six is a slap in the face. Four is like…”

“Don’t quit your day job?” asked Kroft.

Exactly. 

Those four episodes did just well enough to keep Seinfeld on the air, although it took five seasons to really develop its audience and become a top-ten hit. How did the test audience get it so wrong? “The show was different. Nobody had seen anything like it,” explained Preston Beckman, head of NBC’s ratings research department. “It wasn't unusual for poor-testing shows to get on the air, but it was very rare that they became big hits.”

According to Seinfeld, both he and Larry David finally got their hands on the reports and displayed them in places of honor. “Larry and I both hung it up near our toilets,” he said. “We thought if someone goes in to use this bathroom, this is something they should see. It fits that moment.”