Leno, 64, is best known for hosting the “The Tonight Show” for 22 years. He left the most hallowed desk in late-night TV barely four months ago, ceding the franchise to Jimmy Fallon.
Leno is the 17th person to win the Twain prize, created in 1998 to celebrate a living American humorist. In a statement, incoming Kennedy Center president Deborah F. Rutter called it “one of the foremost awards for achievement in comedy.”
“What an honor!” Leno said in a statement. “I’m a big fan of Mark Twain’s. In fact, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ is one of my favorite books!”
“Jay has always been on our list,” says Twain Prize co-founder and co-executive producer Cappy McGarr. “He is the quintessential American humorist. He does it every night, and has done it for many, many years. And he truly is an equal opportunity satirist.”
Leno’s association with “The Tonight Show” spanned five decades, going back to his first appearance there as a stand-up comedian in 1977. By 1987, he was the regular guest host for Johnny Carson, and in 1992 he succeeded Carson — a controversial choice, as David Letterman was also strongly in the running for the job.
Leno again took the hosting job amid friction after briefly retiring in 2009, returning in 2010 after Conan O’Brien had been in the job for less than a year. It was hard to argue with the ratings: Leno routinely topped the late-night numbers game, leading his rivals by roughly a million viewers a night in his final year.
Simply winning the ratings isn’t the plum it used to be, though. As profitability for “The Tonight Show” dwindled, the staff was downsized and Leno took a pay cut in 2012.
The Twain honor for Leno comes at a time when the longtime late-night kings are delivering their final monologues and leaving their chairs. (Letterman is stepping down next year; in 2012 he was a Kennedy ...More...
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