Carson Daly Returns To Late Night After “Near-Death Experience”

Mediaite: During that time also some late night comedians had some fun with it. You played yourself on Kimmel in a funny role. What did you think of what some of the other hosts, Letterman as well, had to say?

Daly: I’m a fan of all these guys so I didn’t feel like I was in a position to comment on it. I kind of know my place. I didn’t want people to think I take myself too seriously, hence the Jimmy thing just seemed fun and it was fun to do. It’s like when I got name-checked in an Eminem song when I was on MTV. (Ed. note: here’s that song.) At the end of the day, I’m just a music fan and it was just cool that Eminem said my name. And I felt kind of the same way about Letterman and everyone else who wanted to rip on me. I get it and I thought it was funny, and quite frankly, I thought it was kind of cool.

“[MTV] is like a girl I dated for a long time, and then when we broke up all of a sudden she was into heavy metal and shaved her head.”

Mediaite: How about Late Night in general? We talked about the format change you guys went through. From an outsiders perspective it seems to solve a couple problems. It’s cheaper but also makes it interesting and different and new. What do you think of where the broadcast late night business is going as a whole?

Daly: Where I sit it just seems like we’re smack dab in the middle of the plate tectonics of technology shifting, as you see all the media outlets in their conversions to being global content providers. It’s just a whole new way people are watching TV. We just felt like for the economic situation we’re in at 1:30 in the morning for NBC that this shooting style was way more refreshing, being out of the studio and trying to do something different. And it certainly was more cost-efficient. We realize we’re not exactly destination television at 1:30 in the morning. So the whole thing works better for us given our late night time slot.

Mediaite: Talking about younger audiences, it also seems that a lot of shows, and you personally, have gotten involved with new media. You’re on Twitter, you have Carsondaly.tv. What do you think those outlets add to your TV product?

Daly: I think they’re really important for our show just because of the nature of the age of who watches us. Because of my background in music, the common denominator throughout the last eight or nine years on NBC has been our focus to expose new musicians, give people a shot to perform in late night and I think younger people like that about us – the sense of discovery. So much of that vehicle of access for discovery is done through new media and we like the idea that a young 24-year-old can see a band on our show or see a profile of someone we’ve shined a spotlight on and they can use social media as a means to pass around to their network of friends.

Mediaite: You obviously gained a lot of fame at MTV as host of TRL, which now no longer exists. What do you think of the new MTV?

Daly: I feel like it’s somebody I don’t know. Maybe it’s like a girl I dated for a long time, and then when we broke up, all of a sudden she was into heavy metal and shaved her head. It just is a different place. They had a lot of success as I was leaving with scripted programming. I think they just have a different business model now where it was once singularly a vehicle for music. They’ve figured because Laguna Beach started to do so well they could gain a lot more mainstream eyeballs doing anticipatory reality. I went to work there as a radio DJ and they invited me to come and play music, and they thought I was a good ambassador to music and that’s what I did and it was great. And I miss music television, quite frankly. I miss music videos, but there’s a million other portals to see music videos. Listen, they gave me a platform for my career, MTV was always like family and it still feels that way, but they’re just a different beast now.

Mediaite: Should we expect Snooki and The Situation to be on Last Call any time soon?

Daly: I don’t think so. I do not think so. They’re everywhere. They were on Ellen, they’re on The Tonight Show this week. That’s kind of the thing with Last Call – when people are on everywhere we’re just sort of less interested.

Mediaite: Last thing. Anyone out there right now that you think people should be paying attention to that aren’t?

Daly: There’s just too much. People ask me on Twitter all the time, ‘What are you listening to?’ and I write back, ‘Well what are you into?’ Music’s so broad. One of the things about Last Call that I like is that somewhere between a college radio station and like a KCRW, which is a great station here in LA, we do everything from singer/songwriter to rock. If you look at our list of who made their debuts on our show it ranges from everything from Panic! at the Disco To Ray LaMontagne. We’re shooting this group Fanfarlo that I like a lot right now. There’s so much music right now. My short answer is I guess you just have to watch the show.

(This has been edited for length and clarity.)

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