Emmy Awards Prepare For Final Jay vs. Conan Tonight Show Cage Match

It seemed like the dust had finally settled around NBC's 11:35 P.M. time slot. Conan had been escorted off the Warner Bros. premises to circulate the continent on a comedy tour that turned out to be just as therapeutic for its host as for its audience members and Jay Leno resumed his Tonight Show perch as if nothing weird or backstabby ever happened. So by the time that Conan announced that he was abandoning network late night for TBS, it seemed like the two would never go head-to-head again... until we heard about this year's Emmy ballots.

NBC is staging another Jay vs. Conan cage match by submitting both of this year's Tonight Show iterations for Emmy consideration. An interesting move considering that Conan's show was pulled off the air. Curt King, senior VP of Universal Media Studios, acknowledged that "in the DVD campaign packages, typically we do not include shows that aren't returning." In the same statement though, King clarified how the decision came about: "In the race for best variety series, Conan decided to submit The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and we decided to enter The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for Jay." [Emphasis Movieline's]

Regardless of whose decision it was to submit Conan, the Emmys could very much become just become another venue for NBC to eat crow -- if Conan's show beats out Jay's for a nomination, or if both get nominations and Conan's takes home the trophy -- which will be tough considering the Daily Show With Jon Stewart has won the category the past seven years and The Colbert Report reportedly has very strong episode that it is submitting to voters.

As predicted, NBC is also submitting Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (and not The Jay Leno Show) for variety consideration. Stay tuned -- nominations will be announced on July 8.

· Emmy battle of the 'Tonight Shows': Conan vs. Jay [LAT]