Her boyfriend at the time could have been her father, Ray Manzela, more than double Jenny's age during nearly their entire relationship had pestered MTV until finally they offered her a job as a wacky co-host on MTV's Singled Out. This seemed a welcome role for a flustered McCarthy who was driven to tears when the portly slimeball actor Steven Seagal attempted to get McCarthy to disrobe to prove she was worthy of the part he wanted her in with Under Siege 2. McCarthy angrily told him "rent my [Playboy] video, you asshole!" and stormed off the set. At Singled Out, she lasted two years doing The Dating Game of the 90's before she landed her own show on MTV, dubbed The Jenny McCarthy Show. The show was sketch comedy at McCarthy's goofiest. Jenny was ready to graduate to the next level, and the battle for Jenny from the networks was frantic, where executives at Fox literally rolled out the red carpet and begged at her feet to join the fledgling network. Playboy also still had an interest, her new found popularity prompted the magazine to offer her $500,000 to get naked for them again, which she promptly declined. She then made perhaps the biggest mistake of her career by going to NBC, who unlike Fox, gave the quick trigger to new shows that didn't immediately draw an audience. Her comedy, Jenny, which she played an East Coast grocery clerk who inherits a Hollywood mansion didn't do well. Unfortunately, NBC stuck it in a lousy time slot and the show bombed. It was off the air in less than 6 months.

Jenny's career seemed to fizzle as fast as it rocketed from there.  Her only role in 1998 was in the box office flop BASEketball, where she played Yvette Denslow. She also decided that same year to have her breast implants removed, and has urged other females in Hollywood to do likewise for health reasons. McCarthy in 1999 got a role in the limited release of Diamonds, but in the new Millennium she seems to have made a comeback. While her Diamonds role wasn't anything big, it did lead to a marriage... Not to Ray Manzela, whom she'd been trying to dump for years according to reports only to get sucked back in by his charm. Rather, Diamonds' director, John Asher, who told the National Enquirer "Jenny and I fell madly in love, we've been living together and I'm the happiest man alive." This time she landed a man much closer to her age, being only two years her senior. After her marriage, Jenny dyed her hair back to brunette, again as an attempt to gain respect and not fall in the 'Sharon Stone' typecast. Jenny's new found momentum landed her roles in Scream 3, where she plays Sarah Darling, who she describes as "Sarah wants respect, and she's not getting it. I like her because she's got spirit and spunk." One could see the character is a lot like Jenny herself, in the pursuit of respect. McCarthy was also on the short list reportedly for Charlie's Angels. While she may annoy the hell out of many, Jenny isn't going away, as her move this year to Fox signals the network still wants her in their stable. She will be co-starring in a 20something sitcom that indeed sounds much like NBC's Friends.