Johnny Carson Wanted to Get Rid of the Emmys

For four straight years, from 1971 through 1974, Johnny Carson hosted the Emmy Awards, presiding “over the show with his usual charm and humor,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hosting was one of the things Carson did best, from his own Tonight Show to the Emmys to his five turns emceeing the Academy Awards.

But throughout his career, Carson signaled that honors like Emmy Awards didn’t mean much to him. He dumped his own six Emmys at an office he rarely spent time in, mainly because he didn’t want them around the house, according to Bill Zehme’s Carson the Magnificent.

Carson’s longtime lawyer, Henry Bushkin, noted Carson’s ambivalence in 1979 after The Tonight Show won its third straight Emmy. “I can’t say that the award meant little to Johnny because it is always nice to be recognized, but deep in his Nebraska soul, Johnny was suspicious of flattery and the blandishments that all too easily came to people in his position,” Bushkin wrote in his book Johnny Carson. “He knew audiences and was pleased when they liked his work. He knew ratings and took pride in what they proved about his appeal. He treasured the respect of his peers in the industry. Awards were all but irrelevant.”

As proof of how trivial such honors were, when The Tonight Show won an Emmy in 1992 for Carson’s final year on the show, Carson didn’t bother showing up for the ceremony.

So it’s not surprising that Carson believed the Emmys — at least in their competitive form — should be abolished. Instead, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Carson thought the Emmys, with their multiple nominees, expensive “vote for our show” campaigns and single winner, should be scrapped in favor of a system more in line with the Peabody Awards.

“You don’t say there’s a category for drama, a category for comedy,” Carson said in 1974 after he’d hosted his final Emmy Awards show. “If Mary Tyler Moore deserves an Emmy, and she does, for her consistent quality, you give it to her. But you don’t make her compete against Carol Burnett. If Carol Burnett also deserves one, you give one to her, also.”

Carson’s proposal would solve a couple of problems. It would spare actors and other television creators the humiliation of appearing on national television as a deserving candidate but ultimate loser. And it would allow multiple worthy projects to receive special recognition.  

But ultimately, wouldn’t the process be the same? Several shows and performers would be considered, with a select few chosen for a statuette. The non-winners wouldn’t even get the prestige of being an Emmy nominee. 

And if the process had been revised, Carson still likely wouldn’t have shown up to accept an Emmy if he’d won one.