Jay Leno- GS Host? "You Bet Your Life..."

[weaklink75]

coming in fall 2021...

https://deadline.com/2020/09/jay-leno-to-host-you-bet-your-life-reboot-fox-television-stations-1234573626/

[Mike Tennant]

Will Leno make our next successional game show host poll, or will he follow in the footsteps of Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby (or even Richard Dawson)?

Tom Werner, who's co-executive-producing Leno's version, must have a thing for YBYL (or perhaps owns the rights to it). He also served as co-executive producer for the Dawson pilot and the Cosby series.

[BrandonFG]

Both David Letterman and Conan O'Brien expressed interest in the job, but Jay beat them to the punch.

/I keed

[The Ol' Guy]

The hard part of someone replacing Groucho is that he spent a career developing a personality that included abrasiveness towards others in his humor. The audience loved it when someone could put something over on Groucho, and he also knew how to turn the tables on himself for a laugh. Groucho was as much a created character as he was a person. People known as nice guys might find it a bit harder to put that abrasiveness into their style. The title creates expectations from those who remember Groucho's version. The original was more than quips - there were the occasional adversarial guests who tried to top the master. The biggest hurdle for the show will be comparisons. The fewer people who remember the original, the better Jay's chances. I wish him well.

[BrandonFG]

My counter to that is that the most recent version went off the air 27 years ago, so there’s at least one generation that barely remembers or has never heard of YBYL. It would be a way to introduce the 18-49 demographic to a classic, and maybe even Leno himself. The youngest side of that demo was only in middle school when Jay retired for good from late night TV.

Bonus points if one of the rerun channels picks up Groucho’s version. This would be great on MeTV.

[PYLdude]

Wasn’t Groucho’s version being carried on PBS at one point? Or am I thinking of something else?

[BrandonFG]

It was. I’m not sure when, but I wanna say within the last 20 years.

[narzo]

Wasn’t Groucho’s version being carried on PBS at one point? Or am I thinking of something else?

I vividly recall watching it on PBS in the mid to late 70's.  The last time I recall seeing it on TV was when "HA!" debuted and it was on in the mornings. 

[snowpeck]

Wasn’t Groucho’s version being carried on PBS at one point? Or am I thinking of something else?

I vividly recall watching it on PBS in the mid to late 70's.  The last time I recall seeing it on TV was when "HA!" debuted and it was on in the mornings.

It pops up in overnights on Decades once in a while.

[BillCullen1]

Carson hosted game shows before he became host of "The Tonight Show."  Leno's doing it after. 180 episodes gives them 36 weeks. Groucho was one of a kind, but I think Leno could pull this off.

[KWJCDon]

YBYL is also on Jewish Life TV most weekday afternoons and on Thursday evenings.

[Mike Tennant]

Here's the thing I don't get: YBYL, as a game, was nothing. It was only Groucho's banter with the contestants that made it work. Aside from some sporadic reruns, that version has been off the air for 60 years, and neither Hackett's nor Cosby's version is very well-remembered. How much cachet does the name of the show have with the average American under 60? If you want to do a game show that's mostly Leno interviewing people, why not just invent your own and give it a new name? Calling it YBYL only sets Leno up for the inevitable--and probably unflattering--comparisons with Groucho among older viewers while doing little to attract younger viewers.

[Chief-O]

Wasn’t Groucho’s version being carried on PBS at one point? Or am I thinking of something else?

Let's not just count the TV version. Up until the program got retired a couple months ago, Wisconsin Public Radio's "Old Time Radio Drama" regularly included "YBYL" in its lineup. I doubt I was the only young'un listening in to it.

[tvwxman]

Here's the thing I don't get: YBYL, as a game, was nothing. It was only Groucho's banter with the contestants that made it work. Aside from some sporadic reruns, that version has been off the air for 60 years, and neither Hackett's nor Cosby's version is very well-remembered. How much cachet does the name of the show have with the average American under 60? If you want to do a game show that's mostly Leno interviewing people, why not just invent your own and give it a new name? Calling it YBYL only sets Leno up for the inevitable--and probably unflattering--comparisons with Groucho among older viewers while doing little to attract younger viewers.

You think about it - how is it different from the current version of the Tonight Show? Jimmy Fallon (badly) interviews celebs, and then other celebs come out and they play a game.

Come to think about it, I'm kinda surprised Jimmy and Higgins' Game of Games hasn't become a spinoff yet.

[Stackertosh]

This makes me think of Jay Leno Segment "Jaywalking" i can see him pulling this off well. I miss him on Late Night tv.