Last Call with Carson Daly

History

2002–2006

Last Call premiered on January 8, 2002, as the successor to Later. Last Call initially aired Monday through Thursday until the cancellation of Late Friday in late May 2002; it was aired five nights a week since. Its premiere was delayed one day at the last minute due to a contract dispute, with a rebroadcast of SCTV airing in its place on the night it was scheduled to premiere.

Last Call was originally taped in Studio 8H of the GE Building in New York City, which was also the home studio of Saturday Night Live. However, this required the producers to work around the schedule of Saturday Night Live. During this phase, Last Call had no house band and no jokes or monologue, going straight to the first guest at the beginning of the show. The stage was set up in an empty black box theater style, save for two low-slung chairs and a small table. Each week, a different unsigned band was brought in to do the music, in addition to any musical act at the end. Gradually, the set acquired more furnishings and decor, much of which was influenced by the occasional week-long trips to Las Vegas. In 2003 and 2004, Last Call was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for "Choice TV Show – Late Night".

Last Call was originally planned to broadcast in high-definition when Studio 8H was retrofitted for Saturday Night Live; however, instead, the show was relocated to Los Angeles in September 2005, and continued to air in standard-definition. After the move, Last Call began to resemble its counterparts, with a more traditional set, permanent house band led by Joe Firstman, short monologue and occasional comedy bits.

In November 2005, Joe Firstman became the official house band leader for Last Call. Notable members of his band include Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Kenny Aronoff, Mike Miley (Rival Sons), Brian Wright, Zane Musa, Zane Carney, Mark Bryan, Marc Ford, and Ryan Porter. Firstman wrote the majority of the material the band performed.

2007

Production of new Last Call episodes was suspended for a month due to the Writers Guild of America strike, but on December 4, 2007, Last Call became the first late night talk show to resume production during the strike. On air, Daly explained that the only reason the show resumed production was that he was given the option to either return or have the show's 75 non-striking staff members fired. The shows were not scripted and did not include monologues. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) was critical of Daly, accusing him of crossing picket lines and labeling him a scab. Daly is not a member of the WGA.

On November 27, 2007, he was accused by the WGA of soliciting jokes for his show through a telephone hotline.

On December 11, 2007, an organized group of WGA writers attended a taping of Last Call. First, one was disrupted during an interview with Jerry Rice. After security removed the first writer, another spoke up disruptively, expressing sympathy with striking writers. A producer asked anyone planning to disrupt the show to leave or face prosecution; between five and twenty left.

2009

As the end of Late Night with Conan O'Brien was approaching, Daly made it public that he was interested in moving to the Late Night time slot. Jimmy Fallon was chosen to replace O'Brien, a choice that executive producer Lorne Michaels had in mind dating back to the day that Fallon left Saturday Night Live in 2004.

In February 2009, network executive Rick Ludwin told TV Week that the company was currently "going through the budgetary process with all of our shows. There are new budgetary realities... It's tough. We want to keep [Carson] going as long as we can make the budget work." Soon after that interview, NBC announced plans for Last Call to go on a one-week "tour" of California, with taped segments of up-and-coming musical acts at various clubs, such as The Roxy, The Viper Room, and Hotel Cafe. As the show's 1000th episode approached in April, NBC's summary of the show made it clear that the change in format would continue: :"Currently in its eighth season, NBC's* Last Call with Carson Daly *utilizes a new style by introducing a documentary style format. Host Carson Daly gets out of the studio and takes the show on location each night. Recent highlights include Daly’s motorcycle trip across the historic Route 66, a visit to comedian Tom Green's house in the Hollywood Hills, and a scene at the Whiskey Bar with the Grammy Award-winning band Kings of Leon." With the change, the usual late-night talk show trappings of a house band, studio audience, and comedy were abandoned. In May, NBC announced that Last Call had been renewed for a ninth season, which debuted on September 21, 2009.

2010

On January 8, 2010, it was reported by multiple media outlets that The Jay Leno Show was moving to 11:35 p.m., the Conan O'Brien-hosted Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m., and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to 1:05, which would have resulted in Last Call losing its time slot (as NBC did not include plans to move Poker After Dark, at the time the show which followed Last Call in some markets, to a later slot). NBC confirmed the move, along with the possible end of Last Call. NBC had repeatedly emphasized that its focus is retaining the lineup of Leno, Tonight and Fallon. NBC chairman Jeff Gaspin told ABC News he expected Daly to stay with the network "in some fashion", but did not elaborate.

On January 9, after the lineup changes were first rumored in the press, Daly made an unannounced stop on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, appearing from the crowd during an audience Q&A session with Kimmel. Daly jokingly asked, "What will happen to my show?" Referencing the contestant elimination process on the show Survivor, Kimmel responded, "As long as you have your immunity idol, I think you're safe." Daly then asked, "Can I have your show?" Kimmel responded, "No."

After O'Brien was effectively forced to leave NBC and Leno was subsequently re-installed as host of The Tonight Show, Daly remained at his spot and received a 4% surge in ratings.

On August 19, 2010, NBC and Daly confirmed that Last Call with Carson Daly would be renewed for its tenth season.

2011

In the May sweeps, Last Call received a 5% increase in viewership compared to the previous year. In the same month, next day encores of the series began to air as part of Fuse's early primetime schedule.

Despite the program being filmed in widescreen since at least 2008, Last Call was still presented in a 4:3 letterboxed format until September 19, 2011, when it became the last program (outside of the network's outside-controlled Saturday morning Qubo block at the time) on NBC's schedule to make the full conversion to high definition. This also made it the last of the major late night talk programs on broadcast and cable to make the switch.

2012–2019

On April 3, 2013, NBC officially announced that Jimmy Fallon would succeed Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show following the 2014 Winter Olympics. Daly was again passed over for host of Late Night when Seth Meyers was announced as Fallon's successor on May 12, 2013.

In September 2013, NBC announced that Daly was leaving Last Call to become the new social media correspondent for its morning show Today. Despite this, Daly remained involved in a limited capacity for the 13th season, only filming opening and closing segments for the program. All interviews were now conducted by the show's producers off-camera.

Though there was originally talk of expanding Fallon's Tonight Show to 90 minutes which would have bumped Last Call to 2:00 a.m. or possibly have resulted in its cancellation, the change of late night time slots did not come to pass and the show's start time remained unchanged.

Cancellation

The series' seventeenth season was its final season and at the time it was the longest-running late night weeknight show on American television with the same host. As part of the final season, Jameela Jamil hosted a recurring segment called Wide Awake with Jameela Jamil.

On February 12, 2019, NBC announced the series would end near the official end of the 2018–19 television season, with Daly citing his more prominent workload with Today, The Voice, and a new project with Golf Channel in wanting to depart the series. The 2,000th and final episode of Last Call aired on May 25, 2019, with repeats continuing until September 12, 2019. On March 14, 2019, NBC announced that Canadian YouTube personality Lilly Singh would host a new talk show to replace Last Call, A Little Late with Lilly Singh.

References

References

1. [http://epguides.com/LastCallwithCarsonDaly/ ''Last Call with Carson Daly''] at [[epguides]].
2. (September 2024). "Daily News America – Breaking national news, video, and photos – Homepage – NY Daily News". Articles.nydailynews.com.
3. Huff, Richard. (2002-01-09). "Daly's 'call' Is A No-show".
4. "Saxophonist Kamasi Washington, fresh from Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, steps into the limelight".
5. (November 27, 2007). "Carson Daly to defy writers strike". Today.com.
6. Finke, Nikki. (November 27, 2007). "WGA Scolds Carson Daly For Returning 'To Support Staff' And Seeking Scab Jokes".
7. (November 27, 2007). "Carson Daly Seeking Scabs". The Smoking Gun.
8. Finke, Nikki. (December 13, 2007). "Carson Daly's Taping Disrupted by Writers".
9. [http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/02/nbc_wants_to_keep_daly_on_last.php NBC Wants to Keep Daly on ‘Last Call’], a February 2009 article from ''[[TV Week]]''
10. Farhi, Paul. (March 1, 2009). "Ready or Not, Here Comes Jimmy Fallon To Update ''Late Night''". [[The Washington Post]].
11. [http://www.nbc.com/news/2009/02/26/nbcs-last-call-with-carson-daly-breaks-out-of-the-studio-and-goes-on-location-to-introduce-new-music/ NBC'S ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' Breaks Out of the Studio and Goes on Location] {{webarchive. link. (March 3, 2009, a February 25, 2009 press release from NBC Entertainment)
12. "Last Call with Carson Daly". NBC.
13. (May 14, 2009). "NBC Picks Up 'Last Call With Carson Daly'". Broadcasting and Cable.
14. (January 16, 2010). "Just call him Conan O'Flyin'". New York Post.
15. Bauder, David. (2010-01-11). "What Will Conan O'Brien Do?".
16. Robertson, Lindsay. "Carson Daly Shows Up on Jimmy Kimmel's Show to Joke About Jay-Conan Stuff – Vulture". Nymag.com.
17. Levine, Stuart. (August 19, 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: NBC Renews "Last Call" for 10th season". [[Variety (magazine).
18. link. (December 3, 2013 NBCUniversal. June 3, 2011. Retrieved on June 4, 2011.)
19. "Hello, Jimmy Fallon, and Hello, New York City". Maclean's.
20. Leora, Arnowitz. "Jay Leno leaving 'The Tonight Show,' Jimmy Fallon taking over in 2014". Fox News Channel.
21. Andreeva, Nellie. (May 12, 2013). "Seth Meyers Named Host Of NBC's 'Late Night', Lorne Michaels To Executive Produce".
22. O'Neal, Sean. (September 12, 2013). "NBC to Imprison Carson Daly Within an Orange Room Made of Tweets". [[The A.V. Club]].
23. "Carson Daly sticking with ''Last Call'' for now as NBC mulls a reboot". TV Guide.
24. Andreeva, Nellie. (November 22, 2013). "'Last Call With Carson Daly' Carries On With New Format".
25. "NBC prepping Jimmy Fallon for 'Tonight Show' takeover".
26. (November 9, 2017). "Don't Ignore 'Last Call With Carson Daly' Or NBC's 1:30 AM Legacy".
27. "Jameela Jamil Learns T-Pain Is Afraid Of Bears...Really, Really Afraid Of Bears!".
28. Porter, Rick. (February 12, 2019). "'Last Call With Carson Daly' Ending After 17 Years on NBC". The Hollywood Reporter.
29. (May 24, 2019). "Doom Patrol and Dynasty Finales, Carson Daly's Last Call, Blindspot Returns and More". [[TVLine]].
30. Schneider, Michael. (March 15, 2019). "NBC Taps Lilly Singh to Replace Carson Daly in Late Night".