Ive heard this my whole life.
What tangible talent does he have?
The answer is none.
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But the studio and the sidekick band proved to be an ill fit.
So the show was reconfigured as a sit-down chat show with longer, more intimate interviews.
Its a huge victory lap.
First of all, everybody was like, No one ever makes it past MTV, he says.
Like they just never saw me coming.
If you didnt see Carson Daly coming, lets recall where he was coming from circa 2002.
He recalls a young girl holding a sign on the street below that seemed to encapsulate hisTRLstatus.
Therein lies the relationship between me and the audience, he says.
I was the access point, the portal to their celebrity.
Im not the celebrity per se.
Im a conduit to power thats really all Ive ever done.
He had no interest in acting and turned down offers to take a version ofTRLto online grid television.
But why would you want to be on at 1:30 in the morning?
Ive heard this my whole life.
What tangible talent does he have?
The answer is none.
YetLast Call With Carson Dalywas born.
Weve got some issues.
Im going to be homeless with my wife and a little baby on Hollywood Boulevard.
But Conan blinked, Leno wonTonight,andLast Callsurvived to see another decade.
OnLast Call,Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar, and the Killers all made their U.S. TV debuts.
It felt like a college film that never lost its funding, says Bailey of the shows latter incarnation.
Our wardrobe budget was $50 a year because every year wed just buy Carson a new hoodie.
Through the years, my room never got redone but I had a fucking room.
I had skin in the game.
Seventeen years later,Last Call With Carson Dalycould just as well have been titledLast Laugh.
In 2015,Vanity Fairdid aphoto shootfeaturing ten late-night hosts as a celebration of the mediums ascendancy.
The most-remarked-upon aspect of the photo: It was all dudes.
It was almost entirely white dudes.
Even so, Carson Daly didnt make the cut.
(Oddly, it wound up with two: Daly and Ryan Seacrest.)
I asked him, How did you do this so long?
How can I stay in this fight?
He told me, Work hard.
People think this shits easy its not.
Then he told me: Being likable is everything.
Id rather be likable than talented.
That one stuck with me.
Because I thought,I can be that.
America grew up, sort of, and so did Daly, sort of.
Oh my God, its the same, he says ofToday.Its literallyTRLfor grown-ups.
It plays to this tiny skill set I have.
Its a perfect place for me.
This shit is a hustle.
Dalys happy to pass the baton.
She comes with a bag of tricks, he says.
As for Daly, hes gotTodayandThe Voice.
Hes maybe cooking up a reality show with his wife.
He co-hosts a podcast for the Golf channel with pro golfer Rory McIlroy.
Someone just wrote to me on Twitter about it, Daly says.
They wrote, Shut the hell up.
I came into this because you have incredible access to Rory McIlroy, the No.
4 golfer in the world, so do me a favor and shut the fuck up.
As always, Daly is open to viewer feedback.
I wrote back, A hundred percent.
Its a good note.
I should remember thats my role.
