carson daly
EXCLUSIVE: Former MTV VJ Dave Holmes On The Demise Of ‘TRL’, MTV’s Current Programming Slate
8:00AM Kyle Buchanan | When we heard the news that MTV mainstay TRL was headed for that great cancellation box in the sky, we decided to get some inside scoop from one of the people who knew it best: former MTV VJ Dave Holmes. The music buff first appeared on the channel as the runner-up to Jesse Camp on MTV’s 1998 Wanna Be a VJ contest, but he outlasted the offbeat Camp and hosted multiple shows on MTV, eventually ascending to his own major place in the TRL firmament. So what does Holmes make of the cancellation — and the current state of MTV in general? Lauren Conrad, you’ve been warned:
RIP ‘TRL’
3:50AM Seth | One of the final shows on the MTV roster to still fulfil their “M” classification, Total Request Live is at long last drawing to a close. Once the state-of-the-art in boy-band-disseminating technology, it allowed viewers to e-mail, text, and phone in their votes, while offering them the thrill of seeing their feedback—”OMG Tom DeLonge izz zooooo hot. Blink-182 roxx so hard!!! LUV U GUYZZZZ :D BlinkGrl182″—crawl along the bottom of the screen in real time. More »
NBC Throws Pink Slip Parade For Returning Carson Daly Writers
3:03AM Seth | Who could forget that disconsolate look on Carson Daly’s face when we caught up with him at CES in Las Vegas, lamenting the absence of the beloved staff of gag writers that make each and every episode of Total Late Night Live a journey worth taking (if you can’t afford cable, and CBS comes in really fuzzy regardless of where you point your bunny ears). But news of the strike’s resolution isn’t likely to do much to raise the spirits of the crestfallen talk show host, as the network has celebrated their return with a hearty round of axings. Deadline Hollywood Daily reports: More »
Carson Daly Admits That Life Without His Writers Is Just As Unhappy As You’d Expect
5:20AM Defamer Hollywood | While on the ground in Vegas with the Gizmodo crew at the 2008 CES, in-house, camcorder-brandishing Gawker Media troublemaker Richard Blakeley unexpectedly found himself face-to-face with embattled™ Last Call host Carson Daly, the late-night canary NBC sent down its talk-show coal mine long before it dared to force his better-leveraged peers Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien back in front of the cameras. Confronted with a question about how things are going without his writers, Daly admits that “none of us are happy to be [in a graveyard- shift hell without people who can whip up jokes to make the time pass more quickly],” but sadly refused to take our operative’s bait when offered a chance to weigh in on whether Leno’s show has been adversely affected by the absence of his own gag-writing staff. Watch Video Previously: Striking Writers Disrupt Carson Daly Taping, Ruining His Talk Show Christmas [Defamer] More »
‘Last Call With Carson Daly’ Now Televised Version of Bored and Depressed Roommates Wasting Their Best Years
7:34AM Defamer Hollywood | You’ve no doubt noticed that Carson Daly’s been demonstrably less gut-bustingly hilarious these past few weeks sans pro writers –the bon mots his niece texts him from math class usually fall flat–but the show hit a new low last night when the material-starved talking head, openly looking to kill a few minutes, held a “talent” show featuring members of his put-upon staff. Listen to the tone of voice of everyone in this thing. Heaven’s Gate members were peppier. More »
Carson Daly’s Last Call Is Hiring!
6:20AM Defamer Hollywood | (At least for an assistant to the Executive Producer.) The ideal candidate will, naturally, need to have all the essential coffee-procuring and errand-running experience necessary to function in any fast-paced TV production environment, but also “must be willing to take drug test and submit to a background investigation.” (Hey, NBC boss Ben Silverman passed his, so that shouldn’t be much of an obstacle for a qualified applicant.) More »
Striking Writers Disrupt Carson Daly Taping, Ruining His Talk Show Christmas
5:45AM Defamer Hollywood | Having survived a public buggering following the announcement that he’d be the first late-night talkshow host to cross the WGA picket line and the subsequent publication of his hilariously misguided e-mail plea for gag-writing help from non-union friends and family, an embattled™ Carson Daly had to know that more sanity-fraying good times were in store for him once he returned to produce new episodes of Last Call without his writing staff. On Tuesday night, a team of striking writers infiltrated Daly’s studio audience (an action not sanctioned by the Guild, we’re told), briefly ruining his penetrating interrogation of Dancing with Stars also-ran Jerry Rice before security restored order to the Last Call world. A tipster forwarded this firsthand account of last night’s shenanigans (there’s also an amusing, if headache-inducing, mobile phone recording of the disruption, which we hope to share shortly): Last night a group of striking writers, including a couple of recognisable names, infiltrated a taping of “Last Call With Carson Daly.” The program was wrapping up the final two episodes of the season before going dark for the rest of the year. More »
6:00AM Defamer Hollywood | After viewing Carson Daly’s initial writerless effort on his revived Last Call Monday night, the NY Times opines that even though there’s been much hand-wringing over the host’s decision to be the first late-nighter to cross the WGA picket line, “a bland interview with the underwear model Karolina Kurkova and pop music by the Plain White T’s” is hardly going to be the death of the Movement, as Daly is not exactly threatening to fill the void left by the darkening of The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live sets. True, but the next thing you know, the Scottish guy who’s on after Letterman gets back to work, and from there it’s a slide down a slippery strike-breaking slope that doesn’t end until Ryan Seacrest is guest-hosting for Leno for months. [NY Times] More »
Embattled Carson Daly Returns To The Air, Determined To Save Jobs And Entertain Loyal Insomniac Fan
6:45AM Defamer Hollywood | About a week after the controversial announcement was made that Carson Daly would cross his writers on the picket line and return to Last Call, the highest-rated late-late night talk show among graveyard-shift convenience store clerks looking for a break from watching closed circuit video feeds of their empty parking lots, the embattled host finally returned to the airwaves Monday. More »
