NBC made the call to let Jay Leno’s Garage fizzle out for 2023, ending Leno’s 30-year association with the network. Leno has appeared on NBC continuously since 1992, ever since he took over The Tonight Show from Johnny Carson. Just a few months after Leno left The Tonight Show in 2014, CNBC secured him for Jay Leno’s Garage, which began as an NBC.com web series. NBC aired the first episode of Jay Leno’s Garage as a regular program on October 7,2015. The show survived seven seasons before being cut.
Leno’s show featured rare and expensive vehicles from the rarest vintage cars, to cherished classics and even modern supercars. Leno showed many of his favorite cars from his collection, like a 1969 Lamborghini Miura S, 1955 Mercedes Gullwing Coupe, and his McLaren F1. The show saw several famous guest appearances such as Elon Musk, Jamie Fox, Mad Men star Jon Hamm, and Ben Collins (The Stig on Top Gear), and guests were encouraged to test their driving skills on-screen. Drag racing was even thrown in occasionally to keep the audience entertained. The show earned solid ratings, and in 2016 it won a Primetime Emmy Award for “"Outstanding Special Class – Short-Format Nonfiction Program".
Little did fans know, until an unnamed source from CNBC spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, that Jay Leno’s Garage aired its final season last fall. Rumors across social media have fans wondering if Leno’s recent accidents, severe burns while working on a steam car and a motorcycle crash that caused multiple broken bones, had anything to do with the cancellation. As it turns out, CNBC told The Hollywood Reporter that the decision comes from a "larger schedule shift" within the channel. Primetime slots will be filled with reruns of popular reality shows like Shark Tank and Undercover Boss, along with original business documentaries.
Jay Leno’s Garage was a fun ride. While Leno will continue to host the game show You Bet Your Life on Fox, the cancellation of Jay Leno’s Garage from Primetime TV feels like the end of an era, especially for car lovers. Fans have high hopes that Leno’s YouTube Channel, which goes by the same name and has 3.46 million subscribers, will continue. So far, there’s no indication the channel's weekly cadence will change.
