Jay Leno ends 'Tonight Show' tenure as ratings winner and Emmy loser
Jay Leno is unlikely to win an Emmy for his final year of hosting "The Tonight Show." That is no surprise when you consider that during his first 16 years at the helm, Jay Leno's version of this late night staple earned just one Emmy Award as best variety comedy or music series. That win was way back in 1995. It has competed for TV's top prize nine times in total.
Jay Leno's predecessor — Johnny Carson — was rewarded with an Emmy Award in 1992 for his much-hyped farewell season on the late night talkfest. However unlike Carson — who only made several more appearances on TV after signing off from his nearly 30-year run at "Tonight" — Leno is set to return to NBC this fall as host of a prime-time weeknight talk show.
Carson's choice for his successor had been fellow Midwesterner David Letterman. When the gap-toothed comic was snubbed by the suits at NBC, he took his show over to CBS. Letterman may not have matched Leno in the ratings but his "Late Show" won the Emmy Award for best variety comedy or music series for its inaugural season in 1994 and piled up another five consecutive wins beginning in 1998.
That winning streak for Letterman ended in 2003 when the Jon Stewart edition of "The Daily Show" won the first of its now six Emmys in a row. While the Letterman show has continued to contend every year since 2003, that was the last year that Leno competed. Interestingly, 2003 was also the first year that Leno's successor — Conan O'Brien — competed in this category. His version of "Late Night" failed to win any of its five successive Emmy bids (2003-07) for best variety comedy music series.
Jay Leno and his team of 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.
Neither Leno nor Letterman ever won the now defunct individual performance prize. Leno 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 lost an additional four times (2001, 2006-2008).
Of course Carson faced his own set of woes with the Emmys. He never understood the rationale behind the placement of his talker. During his tenure, "The Tonight Show" lost seven bids for best variety show in the 1960s and 1970s. Carson then relented and entered the show in the special class category, where it won three times in a row beginning in 1977. After losing a fourth bid in that race in 1980 — though he received the Governor's Award as a consolation prize — Carson competed unsuccessfully again in the variety category another seven times until he finally won in 1992.
Photo: NBC
Get Gold Derby on Twitter. Join the Gold Derby Group at Facebook. Become friends with Tom O'Neil on Facebook. Get Gold Derby RSS feed via Facebook. RSS Feedburner. RSS Atom.
Jay didn't necessarily bring home any hardware, but he did tap into something a lot of people enjoyed, as he's been the ratings king for years now. I've always liked Letterman more and Conan even tops him, but if Leno brings a large portion of his fan base to his new show, it could shake things up.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/more_than_just_a_changing_of_the_guard
Posted by: Jerry | June 03, 2009 at 08:58 AM
Jay was the king of late night talkers, Conan not only has "big shoes" to fill but I don't think he can hold the Tonight Show's ratings. No way No how....I see him keeping perhaps his audience from before but never keep Jay's audience. We are waiting to the fall and then we will switch to Dave, waiting for Craig Ferguson to come on.
Posted by: Mary | June 02, 2009 at 01:41 PM
Leno won no Emmy? Let's see now, who are we trying to please - the critics or the public? Jay Leno had his priorities straight. We enjoyed his brand of humor.
Posted by: Roy B | June 02, 2009 at 10:32 AM