LAist: Carson Daly Is Not That Bad

Anti

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:32:08 -0800

This post is as serious as a heart attack.

jennvecc

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:23:39 -0800

This post is a joke right?

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:12:36 -0800

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...

Anti

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:09:23 -0800

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.

robert dean

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:35:16 -0800

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.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:23:49 -0800

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

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:08:20 -0800

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).

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:46:48 -0800

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.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:22:25 -0800

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.

tomdog

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:45:38 -0800

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.

Tony Pierce

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:42:06 -0800

now youve gone too far, anti

robert dean

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:50:53 -0800

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.