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He's Baaaaaack
My boy Carson Daly takes a lot of heat. People complain that he is a late night talk show hack, and that he is basically unwatchable. Sure he is not the leader of the pack, maybe not even close to the leader, but his show rocks and it's about time people appreciate it before he's replaced with someone even lamer.
We'll admit that his opening monologue is always just a bunch of poorly delivered bad jokes. Sure, that can be annoying but how is that so much worse than Jay Leno who's openers consists of better delivered, bad jokes? Bad jokes are bad jokes, and only Conan's been able to pull it off in recent years. Dave's been good but he's fallen off hard.
Carson may be a douche in real life, that's obvious, but he's at least better at pretending he knows these alleged "friends who happen to be on publicity tours" that end up on his couch on a personal level. Jay just comes off like a dick, Dave's got his head up his ass and doesn't relate well with others, and even Conan comes off a little awkward and "in character". Carson is able to summon his ass kissing radio days, and put the celebs on their pedestals. He even rubs elbows with some of them off camera, making the fake conversation a tiny bit less fake-feeling.
Also Carson rocks. No, he himself doesn't rock, but the person who books the musical acts has damn fine taste. It's not just the dumb predictable circus acts you hear on every cheese-ball radio station, but instead young upcoming acts that are sure to break big, or bands with huge followings that aren't "mainstream". Sometimes it looks like the entire crowd is there just because the band is that good, with fans knowing every word to the songs, ect.
And If you have a case of insomnia, or if you're just up late all the time (and you're not hooked up with cable) Chanel 4 is one of the few non infomercial stations at those hours. So yeah, maybe you hate Carson Daly's guts, but it's really not better than hearing about the latest real estate scam? The only real crime is that they've started showing this horrible Texas hold'em show when his show ends, and the damn clicking together of their chips makes you wake up from the coma Carson's show is so good at putting you in. DAMN!
Carson Daly gets a bum rap, and is subject to all kinds of rumors, such as his recent gauntly-ness being a result of the cocaine addiction he developed when his talk show started broadcasting from Hollywood. As if New York was completely devoid of any cocaine. Suuuure. But who cares? Being some famous weasel with an alleged drug problem shouldn't be a factor in judging his show. So maybe Carson Daly sucks, but he's not that bad.
Photo by the Carson Daly Sucks blog
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well the show has become watchable only since they switched to the standard talk show with band format this year. yeah the booking has been surprising me lately in good ways too.
The rumors are false - the cocaine would make him more entertaining than the suited pencil dick he currently is.
now youve gone too far, anti
I would agree that the bands he has on have been pretty damn good this year. I would disagree that Daly has a better interviewing persona than Letterman or Conan. Frankly, as you confirm, the writing on the Daly show is just deplorable. The writing on Letterman has certainly slipped over the last 10 years, perhaps because he's getting older, perhaps because CBS doesn't want any 'crazy stuff' in that earlier time slot. The writing on Conan's show is definitely the best of all late night TV, hands down.
Nobody mentions Craig Ferguson, who I think is the best late-night guy by far. His guests suck, and he's not a good interviewer, but I have never seen a late-night guy do a monologue the way Ferguson does. Every night, he does like a 20-minute monologue that is a full-scale comedy routine, and it's hilarious. CBS has mucked with the commercial timing, and it's thrown him off a bit, but Ferguson is the only upside to insomnia.
I'm a talk show junkie. I TiVo talk shows because I can't stay up late since I'm up with the roosters to be at work by 7:00am. When I get home from work around 6:30pm, I play back the previous night's talk shows since the only thing on network television these days is prime time game shows and reruns.
Craig Ferguson has the best monologue of all the late night talk show hosts. He does a stand-up routine for about 15-20 minutes at the beginning of his show, and though it may be rehearsed, it feels like he's just winging it, which is fantastic. Ferguson interrupts his guests too much when he interviews them, but he's excellent when he interviews people from the "Old Country", as he often refers to his home country, the United Kingdom (UK).
I used to watch Conan, but his bits and shtick have gotten old.
Leno is a hack interviewer, but you can tell that he puts time into his monologue. Leno also over sells the punch line in his jokes, which is not very funny at all.
Letterman's monologue is not funny to me either. Letterman is probably the best interviewer when he's interested in his guests. I've seen him do some great interviews with politicians, and some thoughtful actors. Letterman also cracks me up when he flirts with the female guests.
Carson Daly is absolutely horrible at stand-up. He's obviously not a comedian, but he does have more knowledge about music than most people give him credit for. One of the funniest interviews Carson has ever done was with Shia LaBeouf a couple of years ago, before Shia became the big new 'movie star' that he supposedly is currently.
Shia grew up here in L.A. and he's a big hip-hop fan, so Carson asked him what he thought of 50 cent and the Game's new CDs. Shia was very critical of 50 cent's lyrics (he called them 'weak'). Carson told Shia that he better be careful, otherwise he might get killed by 50, but Shia held his ground. I thought it was very funny because Carson was really concerned for him, and because Shia did not back off his criticism one bit.
I've seen some really good bands first on Carson Daly's show, acts I would never have heard of otherwise. Some have gone on to become popular (Maroon 5) others have retained their cult following (John Butler Trio).
Carson is really good with interviewing musical guests because he does have a better handle on music. I usually skip through the interviews he does with actors because I've never heard of most of them.
The late night talk show formula has been fairly set since the '60s. It would be nice if there was an alternative, but no network is going to invest money into experimenting with different formats given the late hour and the fact that most people are sleeping when these shows air.
Why does everyone forget about Jimmy Kimmel? He's the funniest of the bunch and is great at interviewing his guests -- he's always very natural.
If you haven't watched Kimmel in a while, give him a try (although, like most of the others, he's in reruns this week).
Well for one, Everyone knows Conan is the funniest talk show host thats ever lived, if talk shows were rock n roll, he would be elvis. jimmy kimmel is only funny because he has a hostile negative sense of humor which everyone in this country has so its cool. carson daly is horrible in every way, i literally would rather watch jack van impe.
-torch
Yes Craig Ferguson! I read somewhere that he doesn't use cue cards for the monologue. I would love to see NBC take him from CBS for Conan's spot. Jimmy is cool but I have a feeling he doesn't care for it; maybe he's just smart and knows the field is crowded and has a couple projects (a game show and something else I can't remember at the moment) keeping him more occupied.
what's with the crappy times that Jimmy Kimmel's show airs?
it would be less forgettable if his show came on at around the same time as Jay and Dave.
Carson Daly?! WTF, it would probably be impossible to find anyone who is worse in any aspect of his job...oh, yeah I also heard he drove a Ford Probe in High School...
This post is a joke right?
This post is as serious as a heart attack.