Carson Daly Counts Down The New Year In Prime Time

Tom Rose
Fancast.com

Carson Daly has been watching the ball drop in Times Square for NBC since the turn of the century, and the countdown has gotten longer each year. Starting with 5 minute live feeds on The Tonight Show and leading up to hosting his own hour long program, success has been slow, but steady. Just the way Carson likes it.

Daly has been building a reputation as the Clive Davis of his generation by attending out of the way music festivals, doing time in smoky clubs and indulging his lifelong passion for music with a circle of trusted friends. Throughout his rise from radio DJ, on to MTV VJ, late night talk show host and now Dick Clark challenger, he continues to nurture the talent that kick-started his impressive career: breaking new musical acts way before the rest of the entertainment industry.

This year all the hard work pays off with NBC moving The New Year’s Eve Extravaganza into prime-time (it kicks off at 10 p.m) and heavyweight musical acts Katy Perry, T.I. and Ludacris ringing in the new year with an old friend.

Fancast caught up with this man of the midnight hour, along with executive producer David Friedman, on a conference call that covered Carson Daly’s career, the extravaganza itself, and most of all, the brains behind the operation that may just signal the death knell for the near-extinct A&R rep of yesteryear.

You’ve seen just about everybody in music and I was wondering if anyone coming on the New Year’s special was an act or performer that you’ve not seen, and if you could share?

Carson Daly: On our show no, I’ve seen everybody on our show really by way of the late night show. One of the things that we’ve liked to do historically and have done with some of the acts that we’ve had on the past, like Maroon 5 and a few others, you know, we use the late night show as a vehicle to give new acts - primarily new bands, a shot in late night and for them to make their TV debut.

So we’ve nurtured a lot of relationships that way. I saw Katy Perry in Austin, Texas last year at a showcase and came right back to LA and booked her for the late night show where she made her debut. And she went on to have a great year, so I’m always looking forward to seeing her.

T.I. is, you know, great. The music is fantastic. I saw The Ting Tings at the MTV VMA’s this year and fell in love with them as well.

That’s so cool. I know that all the acts bring so much to the table and you obviously have your favorites. Who do you think will surprise people the most this year with their performance?

Carson Daly: You mean just music in general, outside of who we have on the show?

You can also mention that and on your show, both.

Carson Daly: Well, being in primetime this year, getting this extra hour, it’s given us more real estate on air to work with. So that enabled us to book a little bit broader and larger than we normally do. Obviously the addition of Katy Perry and T.I. - I mean T.I. is arguably the artist of the year. They’re only, I think two or three singles deep on that record and his collaborations with Justin is incredible. That song hasn’t come out. The duet he does with Usher, hasn’t come out. So I mean T.I. and Katy alone are two of the biggest artists, not to mention Ludacris.

On the other side of things, I’d have to say that the rock band, Kings of Leon, I think is just going to be a gigantic band in 2009. I don’t think they’ve even touched the surface yet.

You’ve been doing this for quite a few years in a row now. Do you have a go-to survival kit that you’ve put together for when you go out there? Do you pack a backpack full of your snacks or champagne, or things like that?

Carson Daly: That’s funny. No, because no backpacks are allowed in Times Square. A couple of years ago, the biggest thing was the weather. I mean you just never know what it’s going to be that night. It’s historically been freezing. They put a heater underneath me which was the greatest thing I’ve ever witnessed. So I really don’t need too much other than that heater and my jacket. And as long as my microphone works, I’m good to go.

You’re good to go, okay. Now if you weren’t hosting, you know, this big, elaborate VIP event on New Year’s Eve, how would you celebrate? Just on your own or with your friends?

Carson Daly: Well, between MTV and NBC, I’ve worked this night every year for the past I think 12 years… except one year. So I love working on this night. It’s a great chance to be a broadcaster.
I miss being on TRL Live everyday for five years, and doing that finale recently when I hosted for two hours, I mean I miss being in the moment. It’s such a fun show to do.

I don’t know what I would do. The one year I wasn’t hosting I was on vacation and I felt like I needed to be at work that night. But wherever I am I just start counting down from ten to one and I just pretend like there’s a camera there.

Can you tell us a little bit about what the primetime hour means to the special?

Carson Daly: You know, I’ll let David Friedman, our Executive Producer, chime in on that. For me personally the short statement here is, at this tumultuous time in the entertainment business, it’s a huge vote of confidence that the network has expanded the show into primetime.

So,I’m honored to have the opportunity to be on earlier. But as far as from the business side or from the network side, Dave what do you think?

David Friedman: As far as why it’s important to us?

Yeah, I mean it’s unprecedented to be starting in primetime and then continuing on later at night.

David Friedman: Well I think biggest thing for us is, you know, we’ve been doing this show for many years, about five or six years now. And our goal at the beginning was to get NBC into the New Year’s Eve broadcasting landscape. Because originally they would do inserts into The Tonight Show. And they were doing quite well. But Carson and I really wanted to be broadcasting live in the middle of Times Square and really try to capture what that excitement is like, and bring it to NBC.

Carson was coming off MTV and having done it for years. And so we started off doing it sort of around the ball drop which obviously is midnight. And our goal is always to work towards expanding that broadcast and giving more and more viewers the chance to see what we can do.

And now, thanks to NBC we’re given that chance to go into prime and it just increases the exposure, and the profile, and the numbers, and hopefully the viewers.

I think that’s what’s important to us. The hard work paying off for us and we don’t take that lightly. So this year we’re planning a huge, great show.

Obviously music is going to be a huge part of it. The countdown is a huge part of it. Carson is a huge part of it. But it’s really what we bring to this night, you know, and really capturing the spirit and the essence of Times Square I think, unlike anyone else who does it on that night.

So we’re really excited about competing in primetime and expanding it right through midnight and the ball dropping.

Right.

David Friedman: It’s a culture.

Let me ask you guys as a follow-up, Having watched several of these shows over the years, usually you get maybe one or maybe two A-List stars. But now with what we heard on the call today you guys legitimately have five A-List musical acts. So to what do you attribute that? Is it the primetime hour? Is it the success you’ve had in the past? Is it Carson? How did you guys go about getting such a good lineup for this year’s show?

David Friedman: Well I think it’s all of that. But clearly, Carson leads the way in music.

He always has, and I think artists acknowledge that and they know that when Carson Daly calls or his show calls and says “hey do you want to perform with us on New Year’s?” they know that it’s because Carson has chosen that artist.

And we’re not just putting out a blanket call of hey anybody want to perform on New Year’s Eve? We’re going specifically, out to the people that we want to go to.

And like Carson mentioned earlier on the call, arguably T.I. and Katy Perry are the two biggest artists of the year and those were our two asks.

There are other performers out there that we love and respect, but those are the big ones and we went to them. And I think they acknowledged that this is a destination that they want to be on.

They want to be associated with Carson Daly and NBC, and New Year’s Eve. So I think that’s really the most important thing for us.
Sure, primetime helps, you know, because any time you say to an artist, ‘Hey, you’re going to be on primetime,’ you’ll have one song maybe in prime and maybe a second song, you know, somewhere around the ball drop, obviously the labels love that and the artists understand the importance of that.

So that ’s a secondary thing as well that adds a little bit of punch to us. But you’re right,. I mean we’re thrilled with our lineup.
And, you know, and we’re not even mentioning Ludacris who is a Grammy nominated artist who is an actor, a performer, and a businessman.

And the Ting Tings may be not as well known as the others but certainly a band that people are taking more and more liking to, and even more in 2009.

So we’re psyched about our list. And I think this year, if nothing else, the expanded hour gives us the chance to book more artists because it’s incredibly hard, you know, when you’re on from 11:30 to 12:30, you only have about 43 minutes of live television.

So it always sort of made it tougher for us to book multiple acts and the prime hour gives us that chance, so we welcomed it. It’s great.

Carson, can you talk a little more about Katy Perry? I didn’t realize you kind of had discovered her. Is that kind of what you were saying at the beginning of the call?

Carson Daly: Well no, those are your words. She would slap me in the face if she read that. I could never take credit for discovering her. But my history with her was just that I go to South by Southwest. I try and do as much as I can to always be at the forefront of where music is heading. And it’s just a personal passion of mine. So I guess it’s the same way the buyers go to Sundance and look for films.

I go to South by Southwest with my little book and sit there for three days, and look at bands all day long, and check out acts, and talk to my friends in the business. And they’re just a lot of fun to do. There’s a bunch of bands that came out of there. But Katy was somebody that was playing in the lobby of the Driscoll Hotel that a buddy of mine had said, you know, I hear this chick is kind of a pop act.

But she’s got a nice edge to her and she writes her own stuff, plays a few instruments. She could be an interesting artist coming off the year that could cross charts and, you know, let’s check her out. And plus she’s cute, and I said all right, cool. So we went and looked at her and I thought she was great.

I met her after the show. There was probably 40 or 50 people there. It was a very small showcase, and when I went back to LA we got on to booking her immediately. I Kissed a Girl was just taking off right at that time and I was glad to be a small part of what became an incredible story for her in 2008.

David Friedman: And let me reiterate that the lead for us is we’re going to be on air almost seven years now on the late night show, and it’s always been a great place for music, first and foremost.

And we’re breaking bands, not taking ownership of discovering Katy Perry but giving Katy Perry her first TV experience is what leads then to a relationship which allows us to tap into that for New Year’s Eve when the more mainstream people catch on to her.

You know, Maroon 5 and The Killers, and artists like that all made their TV debut on our late night show, Last Call With Carson Daly.

And that’s because Carson does seek out these artists and we acknowledge them when they’re very young. And there’s less pressure on us because we’re on later in the night and it gives us a chance to approach a band like The Killers who no one had really heard of, and say hey come do our show.

And then, two years later The Killers are at the top of everybody’s list of artists and that’s similar to Katy Perry, you know?

So that helped when you wanted to book her for New Year’s Eve?

Carson Daly: Oh absolutely. There’s a relationship there, but, let me add that there’s a list of probably 30 or 40, or maybe 50 groups that we’ve broken and I know this from working in really small market radio and then finally getting to a station like KROQ in Los Angeles.

You got to give the artist credit because you can be there all day to break them, but you know, the good people in music - and this is one of the things that I’ll back up and say - credibility is everything to us.

And I think the reason that we’re here in our fifth year and we’re able to secure these large acts is largely due to the relationships.

But you also have to give the artist credit. These are all great people who are sort of honoring the system. They’re recognizing thata year ago we were the first place that gave them a good look and they’re paying that back.

And not every artist does that. We’re building this tradition. Slow and steady wins the race.

I mean this wasn’t like let’s just get a bunch of bold names, put them on TV, have a sloppy production, everybody is drunk that night, and try and get a big rating.

We really meticulously think about the production that evening and it started very small, and music credibility was everything from Mary J. Blige to last year having Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz.

You start to build your profile and the music business takes note of that. And here we are, continuing. I never thought we’d top last year yet every year we’ve somehow topped the year before.

And it’s a competitive night, isn’t it? I mean we just got news of the Jonas Brothers over on ABC. Do you feel that competition? Are there certain acts that are just right for you?

Carson Daly: I don’t think the night is competitive. I mean this is a night really through the numbers — we all read them historically — that Mr. Clark has pretty much owned. This is really his real estate.

But this is David Friedman and I going to the network when I got there six years ago saying hey, let’s jump in this game. Let’s get in this game. And we’re here. And we think we’re chipping away. We’re the only New Year’s Eve show that has continually gone up in numbers over the last five years. We’re building our story and it’s organic.

And we think we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the next 30 years. But we don’t look at what they’re doing. You know, this isn’t counter-programming that night. We’re not just throwing something on the screen. We’re doing our show our way. God bless the Jonas Brothers and whoever else they have. But we think the presentation and the thought process of why we have the artists we have and the way that we produce that show, as Dave said, I mean let’s face it, the star of the night is the ball.

The star of the night is looking at a half a million people freezing their you-know-what’s off, intoxicated. That’s great television and that’s what we try and put in people’s living rooms.

Carson, with the economy the way it is do you expect the same turnout as last year or do you think people are going to be staying home more?

Carson Daly: I don’t know. The Dow was up 220 today so I’m hopeful. It’s hard to say. You know, I don’t think there’ll be as many people traveling over the holidays.

If they do, New York I think, is the one vacation that they might still keep on their calendar although oddly enough, I think there’s a lot of New Yorkers that will not be traveling, so they could sort of offset some of the physical bodies that are in Times Square that night.

It’s hard to say but I mean, whether it’s 400,000 or 600,000 there’s just - there’s a tremendous amount of people that night. I think it’s good for the broadcast though. I think the viewership will be high because of the economy.

Carson, because New Year’s is a time to reflect on the past a little bit, I want to ask you about your career path. Others who have had your background with radio and MTV, I find they have often gone on to produce a million things, star in a million things, and just really be overexposed. But I’ve always been impressed with the quality of the projects that you’ve taken on and how you’ve not become J-Lo, for lack of a better term.

Can you talk a little bit about what attracts you to projects and what you are looking forward to doing in 2009?

Carson Daly: Well I appreciate that. I wish I was J-Lo. But listen, you know, this conversation could go very micro or very macro. It’s philosophical. Everybody is different. But I think this whole notion of celebrity has gotten way out of control.

If you ask a group of 12-year-olds what they want to be when they grow up they just say, you know, Paris Hilton and they just want to be a celebrity as opposed to being a doctor or a lawyer.

I got into this, I think, at the very beginning for all the right reasons which was just my personal passion for music. And I was broke until I was through my twenties. I made $40,000 a year. And I was never happier. So my career got kind of teed up for all the right reasons.

And once I had the good stroke of TRL and a great run there, at the end of it I remember networks were coming to me saying let’s do something together. Once something is successful everybody just wants to whore it out and blow it up.

They want it to go bigger and bigger, and bigger. But nobody ever feels that there’s a ceiling. But I did. And I wanted to go away and to get into late night. I had a chance to do that at NBC, and I knew I’d be terrible at it.

It would take some time, and God willing I’ve gotten a little bit better. We have been on for seven years.

Plus, we work within a very good economic system that’s reflective, especially today with the economy of not spending a lot of money yet still putting on a great product.

A lot of stuff comes my way and, you know, I missed the whole reality thing. But that’s not something I’ve been interested in anyway. I missed the whole American Idol competition, where the whole idea is to make somebody a star.

I think we have enough stars. I don’t like rubbernecking television. I just think quality is everything and I’d rather be patient and put my stamp on stuff that I can wake up to and be proud of.

And that’s what I do, not that I have a lot of stuff going on. But the few things that I do, I’m very proud of.

Tune in to The New Year’s Extravaganza From Times Square With Carson Daly, live, and now in prime-time, December 31st at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

We’ll be watching on Fancast.