Jay Leno revives ‘You Bet Your Life’ game
There are not many questions Jay Leno can’t answer with a joke.
Are there any health protocols when he plays a comedy club? (“Wear a condom.”) Is he vaccinated? (“I got the Pfizer with Moderna drizzle on it and a chocolate almond biscotti – that’s how they do it in Beverly Hills.”) Is there humor to be mined from the COVID-19 pandemic? (“A lot of mom-and-pop restaurants went under. Here’s how bad it is – I saw a Mafia don getting dinner to go at an Olive Garden.”).
Leno, 71, remains a gag machine seven years after leaving NBC’S late-night franchise “The Tonight Show,” where he was host for 21 years and No. 1 in the ratings for most of them.
The indefatigable stand-up comic will have a new daily outlet to practice his craft starting Sept. 13 when he fronts an updated version of the classic game show “You Bet Your Life,” nationally syndicated by Fox First Run, a division of Fox Television Stations. (The show will air on KTTV in Los Angeles.)
The show’s return comes during a major revival for game shows in recent years. Broadcast TV has been turning to the genre with greater frequency as a cost-effective, low-risk alternative to the expensive scripted programs that viewers now are more likely to seek out on streaming services.
Since 2016, ABC alone has brought back “Press Your Luck,” “$100,000 Pyramid,” “Match Game,” “To Tell The Truth” and a celebrity edition of “The Dating Game.” The network soon will add special editions of “Jeopardy!” to its prime-time lineup.
Stephen Brown, executive vice president for programming and development at Fox Television Stations, said the breezy entertainment that game shows provide makes them an escapist sanctuary in the current TV landscape.
“Streaming programs tend to be a little darker and edgy,” Brown said. “Game shows are people winning money. They are usually brighter and lighter. They are feel-good experiences. I think America in particular craves that right now.”
In the years since Leno left his latenight perch, many veteran comedians say their business has become more challenging, with the fear of “cancel culture” constricting their creative freedom.
But Leno is not among the complainers, having always taken a service-oriented approach to his work.
“When I do a gig in Utah and they’ll go, ‘Look, we don’t want any drug jokes, we don’t want any sex jokes,’ ” Leno said during a recent Zoom call from his Los Angeles home, “I go, ‘OK, I’ll take those out’ and I do something else. With the #Metoo movement, all of a sudden the sexist jokes everybody used to do, you can’t do anymore. So you either change with the times or you die. You adapt to the circumstances.”
In March, Leno apologized to the Asian American community for the many gags he’s made about Koreans eating dogs. His penchant for the jokes drew him into a controversy at NBC’S reality competition series “America’s Got Talent,” where one of the judges, Gabrielle Union, complained of a toxic work environment and racist behavior.
Leno said he is willing to own up to his mistakes.
“If I see somebody who’s really hurt by something I did, that’s not my job,” he said. “The idea is to get them to laugh.”