News > Carson Daly Extends His Contract With Last Call
August 7, 2007
Written by David Morgan
Easily the worst of the late night programs, Last Call with Carson Daly will retain its host for at least another two years. Daly will also host "NBC's New Year's Eve With Carson Daly" again. According to , NBC says that Last Call outperformed (at least in the 18-34 demographic) shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, both of which air earlier than Last Call. However, there is a simple explanation for that:
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, despite slouching somewhat in the comedy department, still earns very good ratings, better than the superior-quality Late Show with David Letterman. Late Night with Conan O'Brien also does very well, partially because they have Jay to lead into them and partially because that show has by far the best comedy writing staff of all of the major network late shows (rivaled only by the Comedy Central double-threat of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert). By 1:30AM, Conan's show is winding down, the viewer has fallen asleep during the commercial break before the musical guest, and inadvertently has left the TV on to play Last Call with Carson Daly. The reason these people can sleep through Carson Daly is that there are no laughs loud enough to wake them up. You could give that slot to any small woodland creature and still the show would get great ratings, provided the woodland creature did not make any loud noises.
