Last Call With Carson Daly: Suddenly...Awesome?

Then:

Now:

When NBC made their big late night transition, moving Leno to 10, Conan to 11:35 and Fallon to 12:30, it seemed an existential crisis was in order for Carson Daly and crew. Last Call With Carson Daly, Daly's attempt at a studio talk show, was in poor shape. Having appeared in the 1:30 spot after Conan since 2002, the half-hour show never failed to emit the feel of an awkwardly painful, 3rd rate talk show. The problem wasn't just that Daly wasn't a comedian and had trouble managing a studio audience; the bigger issue seemed to be that the show didn't offer any unique reason to tune in.

So, in the midst of this line up shake-up, Carson & gang decided to take a week, hit the road and film some travel segments outside the studio while on a cross country extravaganza through various American cities. Though this period sometimes took on the look and feel of a Coke commercial targeting young 20 somethings enhanced by the annoyingly reflective narration of Daly, it was evident that this new format might signal an interesting evolutionary step in the right direction for the show. Could this be the key to harnessing Daly's inexplicable and hard to pin down calm charisma that made watching late 90's pop music videos somehow easy to digest?

Smartly, they quickly realized that their old format would not hold water in this new, jazzed up era of NBC late night. Instead, they decided to embrace their inability to draw substantial talent by introducing newer, "undiscovered" acts to a television audience that wouldn't normally have the chance at this stage in their career, if at all.

And, since shedding the need for a studio audience, the show has become mobile, allowing for intimate--and many times, insightful--interviews. Carson may not be the best interviewer in the game, but he is an excellent converser, and can bring the interviewees down to a level of open casualness that isn't possible in front of a live audience. In this sense, Daly's lack of knowing, comic wit, which propels shows like Conan's, is his greatest advantage. He gives the sense that him & the guest are hanging at a bar, talking over a beer, which many times, they are.

The show also features a strong focus on music, which is where Carson is in his element. Not only is the show able to film bands as they perform for their own fans in venues around LA, but the edited segments feature some of the best, coolest music that can be heard on TV (a whole lot cooler than MTV). I've found that one of the draws of considering Carson Daly's musical taste is that it isn't grounded in whether or not the music is hip, but whether or not the music is actually any good.

But, perhaps the coolest aspect of the new and improved Last Call with Carson Daly, is that it's become the first late night show I can think of where the audience can learn about things they wouldn't have otherwise discovered, rather than being presented with a continual stream of guests merely pedaling their media product du jour (French for, "of the day"). The guests on Last Call feel more like subjects the show has chosen to cover rather than talent ordered by the network to have on, which, assumedly, is the freedom that comes with having an undesirable 1:30am slot. "Check this out" is something Daly often says before cutting to a segment, and that's exactly how it feels: a small group of people making a show composed of things they think are cool or interesting, and they are excited to show it to you and hear what you think. It's a strangely humbling goal in this day and age of television.

The show can still suffer from editing overkill, looking like a film school student's interpretation of an MTV show. But hey, it's on NBC, not MTV. And again, at 1:30 in the morning. It's all part of the aforementioned humble-factor. I'll put it this way: it could be a whole lot worse. Let them experiment. I'm all for it. Good job, Carson & crew, it's working.

share on: facebook