Last Call with Carson Daly

I just finished watching this show filmed live in Las Vegas, and it was painful. Carson has no humour, nor does he have any interviewing skills. The show had many of those "uncomfortable silence" moments where you felt uncomfortable even watching it from home. A true interviewer like Jack Parr, Johnny Carson or David Letterman can continue an interview regardless of the interviewee and their inane answers. Carson Daly does not have this ability. He's been on the air for a while now, so if the ability was going to show itself it would have already. Jon Stewart had the same problem, but he worked on it and achieved a good style. Carson has yet to do this. There's a reason that this show is on at 1:30am.

I have to agree with the only other reviewer - is this supposed to be a joke? Carson Daly was just fine catering to a bunch of fifteen year olds and talking about the latest Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock videos on MTV's "TRL," but as a late-night talkshow host, he is completely unoriginal, not to mention totally annoying. The only reason I stayed up to watch it is because his slot is after Conan O'Brien's. I have watched the show a few times, and I can't believe how impolite and rude Daly is to his guests. And you thought Jay Leno was bad? I was embarassed for Jason Schwartzman when he was recently a guest on the show, because he literally couldn't get a word in edgewise. Daly took it upon himself to continually insult and interrupt Schwartzman, and it was just really, really bad TV. Secondly, Daly just simply is not funny. He tries to be cool and seem like he is really "down" with his guests, but he looks like a fool and tries way too hard. And as a huge fan of Conan O'Brien, it isn't hard to tell that Daly occasionally rips off some of Conan's humor techniques and tries to nonchalantly pass them off as his own unique brand of humor. Any fan of Conan's will agree that the reason that Conan is so funny is because he 1) appeals to those who are self-deprecating and who don't mind laughing at themselves, and 2) his style is therefore completely original, because his phrases and jokes come off like they are inside jokes, like he's talking to some of his friends and you just happen to have the privilege of listening to the conversation, and understand enough to know that it's really funny. I notice Carson Daly literally taking some of the nerdy phrases and funny body contortions that Conan uses and trying to incorporate them into his monologues or interviews with his guests, much like Conan does. Except, it doesn't work, because Conan is funny, and Carson isn't. Bottom line: Believe me, if Conan wasn't obligated to promote Carson's show because it is on the same network, then you KNOW he would be ripping on Carson's show all the time.

This show sucks big time. I watched it for a while but got tired of carson asking everybody on his show what they thought about having stories made up about themselves and posted in the tabloids. This would be fine if he was interviewing a tabloid queen like J.Lo but it's always his first question and usually most of the interview.

The show gets good guests who have a story to tell and since the show is on late at night they can tell some of the stories but Carson takes over the show with his obsession will rumors that get published. So if you like the types of celebrities that Carson has on his show but actually want to hear their stories watch Kilbourn or Kimmel, but if you enjoy the same interview every night watch Carson.

I have watched this show twice. I never new it existed until flipping through channels one night. Carson is an awesome MTV host, but a HORRIBLE late night host. In a show I watched he continuously talked about the flowers and how well they were arranged for the musical guest. NO ONE CARES!!! The music sucked and we don't watch TV to see flowers. He makes jokes the audience fails to laugh at, leaving us at home uneasy trying to watch his amateur performance. The only thing good about his show is when he knows something he says is not funny, he keeps his mouth shut and does not try dig his hole deeper. Even his guests look uncomfortable as he makes feeble attempts to interview them. Maybe he is on drugs and in his own world where everything he says is funny. NBC must be in the same boat for keeping him on air. I am a big fan of Carson, but he is just too dull for late night talk show.

I had no bias against Carson when I saw this show for the first time; I had watched TRL maybe twice ever and hadn't formed any opinions about its photogenic host. So I hope no one will think I'm prejudiced in saying that Carson lacks the necessary charisma and wit necessary to be an engaging talk show host. The monologues are mercifully short, and the interviews are just mind-numbing. Worst, whenever Carson inserts a bland line of filler, you just know that Leno or Conan would be saying something brilliant and hilarious. To his credit, he's completely sincere and doesn't display any ego during the show. But sincere people are easy to find... they don't deserve my 1:30-2:30.