Comedian Jim Gaffigan Breaks With Netflix Releases New Special Everywhere But Netflix

Gaffigan came up in the comedy world on the club circuit in the early 1990s. Back then, HBO was pretty much the only place stand up specials aired. Comedy Central was just getting started. In 2000, Gaffigan landed his own sitcom – considered the holy grail of comedy success back then – but it failed to find an audience. In 2006, he headlined his first special for Comedy Central, called Beyond the Pale. That led to his first theatre show the following month. By then, YouTube was changing how things were done. Comedians now had a global platform with fairly unfathomable distribution. Then Twitter arrived, allowing comedy bookers a real-time look at which comedians were attracting audiences. Then Netflix figured out streaming, and went after comedians as a cheap and easy way to create original content and gain subscribers. Gaffigan’s first Netflix special debuted in 2017. Netflix was the place to be. It had taken Aziz Ansari and Ali Wong and made them superstars with their Netflix specials. Dave Chappelle signed a $60 million deal for his series of comeback specials. Jerry Seinfeld inked a $100 million payday for a long term multi-program deal. Gaffigan sold his first special, Cinco, for a seven-figure sum. But more than just the money – Netflix gave Gaffigan access to an audience of 94 million people. Today, Netflix has four times the number of stand up specials that it had back in 2017. That makes it difficult to stand out and find an audience. Netflix also holds the rights to these specials, including Cinco, in perpetuity. Basically, this means performers get money up front, but no money on the backend. If the special is wildly popular, Netflix will make more money, but the comedian will not. With new services on the way from Apple, NBC Universal, Disney, and WarnerMedia – the avenues Gaffigan has to sell his specials are growing and getting more life and revenue from them.