Last Call with Carson Daly

History

Last Call with Carson Daly debuted on January 8, 2002, taking over the time slot from Later. The show originally ran Monday through Thursday, but after Late Friday was canceled in late May 2002, it expanded to five nights a week. A contract dispute forced the premiere to be pushed back by one day, and a rerun of SCTV aired instead on the originally scheduled night. The program first taped in Studio 8H at the GE Building in New York City, the same space used for Saturday Night Live, which meant the production team had to coordinate around SNL’s schedule. In this early period, the show had no house band, no jokes, and no monologue; it jumped straight into the first guest. The set was a bare black box theater with just two low chairs and a small table. Each week, a different unsigned band performed the music, alongside any musical guest at the end. Over time, the set gained more furniture and decorations, many inspired by occasional week-long trips to Las Vegas. In 2003 and 2004, the show earned Teen Choice Award nominations for Choice TV Show – Late Night. Originally, Last Call was meant to broadcast in high-definition when Studio 8H was upgraded for Saturday Night Live, but instead the show moved to Los Angeles in September 2005 and continued in standard-definition. After the relocation, it adopted a more conventional late-night format: a traditional set, a permanent house band led by Joe Firstman, a short monologue, and occasional comedy bits. Joe Firstman became the official bandleader in November 2005. His band included notable musicians such as Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Kenny Aronoff, Mike Miley of Rival Sons, Brian Wright, Zane Musa, Zane Carney, Mark Bryan, Marc Ford, and Ryan Porter, with Firstman writing most of the material they played. New episodes paused for a month during 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. Daly told viewers he returned only because he was given a choice: come back or see the show’s 75 non-striking staff members lose their jobs. Those episodes had no scripts and no monologues. The WGA criticized Daly, accusing him of crossing picket lines and calling him a scab; Daly is not a member of the union.