Carson Daly Goes "Later"

Wed., Aug. 15, 2001 11:25 AM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Forget Johnny, another Carson's poised to take over late night.

MTV's resident hunk Carson Daly has signed on as the new host of NBC's late-late-night one-on-one interview show, Later.

Total Request Live fans need not fret, though.

Daly will be keeping his TRL day job, along with his gig deejaying two syndicated music radio shows. But his involvement with NBC is part of a three-year development deal that gives him a chance to move from teenybopper land into more adult-oriented fare.

"We are ecstatic that someone as bright and promising as Carson will be joining our lineup to ensure that NBC remains the late-night leader," says NBC President Jeff Zucker.

As host of Later, Daly will be staying up late to interview not just the 'N Syncs and Britneys of the world, but celebrities and pop-culture personalities who are actually old enough to vote.

While NBC is doubtlessly counting on Daly attracting a younger demographic to the ratings-challenged show, Later runs from 1:35 a.m.-2:05 a.m. Mondays through Fridays--well past the bedtimes of Daly's diehard fans.

Before hitting the big time as host of TRL, MTV's juiced-up take on American Bandstand, Daly deejayed for Los Angeles' alt-rock station KROQ-FM. After moving to MTV, his affable good looks helped make Daly the obsession of millions of teenage girls and TRL the music network's highest-rated show, as well as a required stop on any self-respecting popster's publicity tour.

Daly parlayed his TRL fame into gigs on several CBS specials, including the 2000 Miss USA pageant and several Super Bowl-related shows.

Daly--who hails from the Larry King school of softball questioning--might want to work on his interviewing chops before taking over the Later duties.

The show made its debut in 1988 following what was then Late Night with David Letterman. Original host Bob Costas set the standard, taking advantage of his well-honed interview prowess and the show's one-on-one setting to present more intimate insight into celebs.

When Costas left Later in 1994, NBC tapped former Talk Soup host Greg Kinnear, who departed the show two years later to pursue a movie career. The network has since utilized a rotating cast of guest hosts (Cynthia Garret filled in last year) before settling on Daly.

Daly will have time to practice. A victim of declining Nielsens, Later has been on hiatus since the beginning of the year, replaced with SCTV reruns. NBC plans to start up the chatfest with Daly at the helm in early 2002.