Unlike Johnny Carson — his predecessor on "The Tonight Show" — Jay Leno is unlikely to win an Emmy Award for his final season of the late-night talk fest. Since taking over the fabled franchise in 1992, Leno's version of the talk-show staple has won the Emmy for best variety comedy or music series exactly once, way back in 1995. And the last of its nine nominations in that category came in 2003.

Just why is that? Leno's middle-of-the-road approach to humor naturally works with middle America, but it lacks the cool factor for Emmy voters, who prefer the edginess of David Letterman (his "Late Show" won five Emmys in a row beginning in 1998) and the savage satire of Jon Stewart (his version of "The Daily Show" has won the last six races). Conan O'Brien — Leno's soon-to-be successor at the "Tonight Show" — failed to win any of five successive bids (2003-07) for his version of "Late Night" as best variety series.

However, while Leno and his gag writers have never been Emmy nominees, O'Brien and company have been in the writing race every year since 1996 (but for 2005) and finally won the award in 2007. That brought an end to a four-year winning streak for "The Daily Show" scribes. David Letterman won four consecutive Emmys as part of the writing team on the original "Late Night" beginning in 1984 and has been a perennial writing nominee for "Late Show," including last year.

O'Brien has never competed for the individual performance Emmy while Leno has lost that race twice — in 1998 to Billy Crystal, who hosted the Academy Awards, and in 2005 to Hugh Jackman, who emceed the Tony Awards. Letterman was also in that 1998 race, and he has lost an additional four times (2001, 2006-2008). O'Brien's replacement, Jimmy Fallon, has never vied for an Emmy in any category.