Jay Leno's Garage began as Jay's personal love letter to cars, a YouTube channel built around his extraordinary collection, curiosity, and the kind of automotive access few others could get. Velarde joined as Supervising Producer to help turn that singular voice into a repeatable, high-volume production model without losing the spontaneity and authenticity that made it work.
Working across production, editorial, and content strategy, Velarde built the engine behind a full episode every week for six years without a miss, more than 300 in all, from restoration deep-dives and celebrity drives to first looks at concept cars and emerging automotive technology. Every story was designed for digital audiences but produced with the craft and storytelling discipline of broadcast television.
Velarde took over creative direction of the channel in 2013 with 300,000 subscribers. Eighteen months later it passed a million. He received five Primetime Emmy nominations for his work on the series. That digital success proved the strength of Jay Leno's Garage as a larger franchise, paving the way for its expansion to CNBC. When the television series premiered in 2015, it became CNBC's most-watched original-series telecast at the time and delivered the network's most-watched original-series launch. The series ultimately ran for seven seasons and 88 episodes.
What began as a digital series built around Jay's passion became a long-running television franchise, without losing the curiosity, access, and sense of discovery that made the original work.
