Carson Daly Pulls Double Duty

Wed., Feb. 13, 2002 12:00 PM PST by Marcus Errico

Get ready for a daily double dose of Carson Daly.

NBC and E! Entertainment Television have reached a deal that will see the teenybopper poster boy's new late-night show, Last Call with Carson Daly, air on E! just hours after running on NBC.

It's the first time in TV history that a broadcast network's late-night show will repeat on a cable network the same day. The Last Call airing at 1:35 a.m. ET/PT on NBC will rerun at 6 p.m. ET/PT on E! The deal kicks in March 4.

Because Daly's gabfest runs only four days a week (Monday-Thursday), E! will also mix in older episodes during the week. In addition, E! will also broadcast Last Call reruns over the weekend.

Daly's show features him and a single guest chatting it up for a half-hour in front of a live studio audience in New York. Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Keys, Heidi Klum, Dick Clark, Kid Rock and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs are among those who've appeared so far.

"Last Call fits in perfectly with the E! brand and we're thrilled to have it kick off our evening lineup," E! president and CEO Mindy Herman says in a statement. "We look forward to working with Carson and NBC."

NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa says the deal "will give more exposure for the show and Carson."

Last Call with Carson Daly show debuted January 9--a day later than it was supposed to air because of what his reps called "contractual issues."

Last Call was conceived as a replacement for NBC's old late-night chat show Later and marked the 28-year-old MTV Total Request Live veejay's first foray into network TV. Daly went to NBC after a development deal with MTV's Viacom corporate sibling CBS fell through. He also once had a deal with ABC, but the planned prime-time variety show had in mind was deemed too close to his MTV Total Request Live format and nixed.

Daly began his world conquest campaign in radio, gaining initial fame deejaying for L.A.'s alt-rock mammoth KROQ before moving to MTV and the world of boy bands and celebrity girlfriends (such as Jennifer Love Hewitt and ex-fianc?e Tara Reid). He also hosts two nationally syndicated radio shows, Carson Daly's Most Requested and Out of the Box, for Premiere Radio Networks.

Daly has said he envisions Last Call as a way to break free from his teen-idol TRL image and interview a wider variety of celebrities and newsmakers, becoming something of an edgier, better-looking, Gen-Y version of Larry King.