Jerry Seinfeld tops Forbes highest-paid comedians list for 2017

The Netflix effect is affecting the list of highest-paid comedians for 2017.

That’s the unmistakeable takeaway from the annual assessment by Forbes, which each year tries to make an educated guess at how much comedians have made in the previous fiscal year. Unsurprisingly, Jerry Seinfeld, who’s still raking in residuals for Seinfeld and also making money from his Comedians in Cars webseries as well as a new Netflix special coming later this year, topped this year’s list. Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle all reportedly earned upward of $20 million each for new Netflix hours. Louis CK and Amy Schumer also released new Netflix hours; CK and Schumer earned additional money from touring; CK even more from his self-made Horace and Pete, and Schumer even more from her new movie Snatched.

Here’s the Forbes list of highest-paid comedians for 2017 (estimates June 1, 2016 to June 1, 2017, pretax as well as before taking out commissions for agents, managers and lawyers)

  1. Jerry Seinfeld, $69 million
  2. Chris Rock, $57 million
  3. Louis CK, $52 million
  4. Dave Chappelle, $47 million
  5. Amy Schumer, $37.5 million
  6. Kevin Hart, $32.5 million
  7. Jim Gaffigan, $30 million
  8. Terry Fator, $18.5 million
  9. Jeff Dunham, $15.5 million
  10. Sebastian Maniscalco, $15 million

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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