Jay Stewart - Career Highlights

Career Highlights

Stewart was perhaps best known for his work on Let's Make a Deal and in the 1980s on Sale of the Century. Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall called Stewart "the best second banana you ever found in your life" and said that "it was a very, very good feeling between us." On Let's Make a Deal Stewart participated onstage as well as announcing, often seen modeling the show's "zonk" prizes (a practice also used by current announcer Jonathan Mangum).

Stewart was also the primary announcer for all Barry & Enright game shows from 1977 until 1981, including The Joker's Wild, Tic-Tac-Dough, and Bullseye. Charlie O'Donnell took over the role on the Barry-Enright shows starting in the 1981-82 season, when Stewart left due to his daughter's suicide.

In 1981, Jay was selected by Mark Goodson to announce approximately two months worth of episodes on Card Sharks, pairing him with future Sale of the Century host Jim Perry. It was Stewart's only announcing assignment for Mark Goodson Productions, occurring while he was still employed with Barry & Enright. Stewart was brought in to substitute for regular announcer Gene Wood, who was recovering from a serious automobile accident.

Besides his duties on the NBC and syndicated versions of $ale of the Century, Stewart announced the first year of Scrabble before being replaced by Charlie Tuna in 1985. He also made a cameo appearance on the series finale of The All-New Let's Make a Deal in 1986 alongside original LMaD prize model Carol Merrill; Stewart's appearance, like many of his on-screen appearances on the original series, was modeling a zonk a player had just won. In addition, between his stints with Barry & Enright and Reg Grundy Productions, Stewart was the voice-over for National Enquirer commercials, which he continued to do until around 1986.

Stewart left Sale of the Century in 1988. His final announcing position was on Blackout shortly after his departure from Sale, where he replaced Johnny Gilbert as the show's announcer for its final two weeks.