Strike, schmike — there’s a huge groundswell of demand for the return of Carson Daly to the late-night airwaves. Nay, all of America is rising as one, telling Daly and NBC that we don’t care if he has to cross the writers’ picket lines, we MUST have our nightly fix of Carson before we can drift off into untroubled sleep. At least that’s the only explanation I can imagine for why NBC and Daly have chosen to make Last Call the first late night talk show to cross the writers and go back into production, with new episodes beginning next week. (The Hollywood Reporter article announcing the decision does not cite any of the reasoning behind it, so guessing is all I can do.)
But how will Daly, that paragon of comic timing and trenchant, topical monologues, tell jokes without writers? He’s recruiting scabs, sending out an e-mail to friends and family, asking them to call and leave their witticisms on his joke hotline. (Maybe "scabs" is unfair; are they still scabs if you’re not offering to pay them for their work?) According to the e-mail (thanks, The Smoking Gun!), Daly is soliciting jokes of the "2 priests and a rabbi walk into a bar," variety, so that should slake everyone’s thirst for the kind of timely, political humor we’re all missing as long as Jay, Dave, Jon, Stephen, and Jimmy remain in reruns.
Meanwhile, how is fellow NBC late-nighter Conan O’Brien, along with his staff, keeping busy? This video from the Late Night Underground blog offers a clue. No jokes, and yet still funnier than Carson Daly.
What do you think of Daly crossing the picket lines? And is there any possibility you’ll actually watch his show next week?
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Does Last call even HAVE writers?
Really?
I think Carson Daily and those around him realize an opportunity when they see one. With all of the other late night shows out of commission, this is a huge chance for Daily to get ratings and recruit new viewers. And I have watched the show before, I am not sure if he ever had writers in the first place….
@Jaime: I dunno if it’ll help him get new viewers. 1:30 am is pretty darned late, and I don’t think people are going to be staying up just to watch Carson Daly.
And the people who are up are probably satisfied watching Adult Swim or whatever reruns are shown at that time.
Didn’t even realize Last Call was still on- ever since Carson went manorexic, he is hard to watch- that picture is just scary.
Carson Daly just made my “Enemies List”.
Nope, not gonna watch. Would rather catalogue my lint collection. He crosses the line, I cross him off my list of shows to watch.
A. What a tool.
B. Very curious to see who he’s going be able to book to appear on Late Night with Scabby. Given the amazing support the writers have I can’t imagine any but the lowest of the low taking the dive.
C. I’d rather watch spanish language infomercials, strike or no.
A. What a tool.
B. Very curious to see who he’s going be able to book to appear on Late Night with Scabby. Given the amazing support the writers have I can’t imagine any but the lowest of the low taking the dive.
C. I’d rather watch spanish language infomercials, strike or no.
That is quite possibly the scariest picture I have ever seen of any human being. Ever.
I thought they went back into production to avoid having to layoff the non-writing staff of the show. This doesn’t necessarily make it OK, but it does make it seem like they have some good intentions.
This show hasn’t been cancelled yet? And they say the networks don’t have any patience.
What does Carson care? he has no obivous talent. The reason Letterman, Leno, Colbert, and Stewart remain of the air is cause they actually write material. Carson is just a hack that was sleeping with the right people. Has no respect for the craft or the his staff of writers
If Im ever up that late, I’m probably gonna watch The Magic Bullet for the zillionth time. Well, maybe not. Carson’s jokes could put me to sleep.
Carson “No Personality” Daily shows that he is also “no class”.
Eww. Why is this guy still getting paid to be on TV, anyway?
carson should just play music videos like the old days. surround him with screaming teenage girls. he’s not a comedian plain and simple – i’d rather watch conan even in reruns.
Daily is attractive, has s good disc jockey voice but his personality is as dull as a tax audit. I am shocked that his show is still on the air.
As for the picture: “OW! Hey Moonvese! Just because my show sucks does not mean that you had to bring in a goat to kick me in the nads!”
To answer your question, no. There is absolutely no chance I’ll be watching next week.
crazy eyes!
i’m not that desperate for new tv shows that i would actually watch that
Carson Daly is a tool. I’m hoping this bold move will be career suicide so I’ll never have to risk seeing him on the air ever again.
I’m lovin how on the ew homepage it says ‘Keeping an Eye on Pop Culture’ with the crazy eye pic above right next to it. Priceless!
What is strange to me is that many people don’t even watch the late night talk shows for the jokes and monologues but the celebrity guest stars. Same thing with awards shows. In fact, most of the “jokes” at awards shows are lame anyways. That being said, I do support the writers and think they should get their share of online profits.
I’m pretty sure if you replaced Carson with a puppet, the show would exponentially improve.
The picture is truly the best part of this article.
He won’t actually be crossing picket lines because no one cares enough about his crummy show to picket it.
ACK!!! Are you trying to scare the bejesus out of us? Bad enough that his show is STILL on the air (couldn’t NBC just go straight to Poker After Dark after Conan?), but that’s the best picture you can find of him? Not that he was ever good-looking to begin with, but, Jesus, those EYES!
You put up a picture of Skeletor up by mistake.
That show had writers?
Carson Daly had a career after he stopped dating Tara Reid?