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"[\n\n](http://blog.gq.com/blogs/the-q/mainheadbglogo.jpg)Last night, Jay Leno returned to host The Tonight Show. It did not go well.\n\nIn a much later time slot, meanwhile, Carson Daly returned with new episodes. In a way, he's the forgotten story of the new late-night wars.\n\nA look back: In 2002, Carson Daly\u2014best known as the one-time host of MTV's TRL\u2014launched a talk show for NBC. Last Call With Carson Daly aired nightly at 1:35 am, sandwiched between Conan O'Brien and infomercials for the Snuggie. Unless you have insomnia, well, you may not know Last Call is still on, nearly a decade later.\n\nHowever, for awhile there, the Leno-Conan drama threatened Carson Daly's very TV existence. If Conan had agreed to move The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m., Last Call would have been canceled immediately.\n\nThroughout the skirmish, the even-tempered Daly managed to remain mostly quiet. Until now. Carson Daly speaks:\n\nThe nation was captivated by Team Leno and Team Conan. How closely were you watching the spectacle?\n\n I didn't pay a lot of attention to it.\n\nCome on.\n\n I knew it was going on. For me, it was a matter of getting our marching orders. We were either going to deploy at 0600 hours or not. This will go down in one of two ways: We're either on the schedule or we're not. We were waiting to see whether Leno be on at 11:35, and would Conan start at 12:05.\n\nWas there ever talk that you'd get bumped to 2:05 am? That's when the stations typically revert to local programming.\n\n I never thought about that. 1:35 is so late. I don't think there's anything beyond that.\n\nThere is. It's called the first hour of The Today Show. You'd been on for almost a decade, yet NBC was referring to Leno, Conan and Fallon as their core latenight brands. How did that feel?\n\n People say to me, 'Aren't you pissed?' Well, no. Not at all. I used to valet park. I bartended. The network has had me on for almost a decade. Everyone leaves me the hell alone. And I stumbled along a format I liked.\n\nYes, you've given up the desk. Your show is now shot on location, like a newsmagazine. You're the Diane Sawyer of late night!\n\n The week Jimmy Fallon launched, we did a stunt week. Jay was going to 10 o'clock. There would be three traditional desk shows on before us. We were like, It's getting a little crowded. So we rebooted the show. I always liked Dave Attell's Insomniac. I liked that feel of him walking the streets. That's where I belong. We have a small staff. We're not even a real latenight show. We're half an hour. We don't have the budget.\n\nHow small is the budget for Last Call?\n\n I couldn't even guess the fraction. When we first started, we shot in New York. We were squatting on the SNL stage. Lorne Michaels would let us shoot there. We'd pop our heads in there, build the set, then they'd kick us out at 10 on Wednesday so they could rehearse SNL.\n\nThere's some freedom in that, though\u2014both the budget and the hour. Is the Standards and Practices department even awake then?\n\n They're fast asleep. David Blaine pulled out his own heart on our show.\n\nWhat?\n\n We shot the show in New York five or six years ago. He pulled his beating heart out of his chest. It looked so real it's ridiculous. We never heard from anyone.\n\nWho is watching at that late hour?\n\n My mom. But we were the first to have Ray Lamontagne on. Josh Radin. Iron &amp;amp; Wine. This week, we're doing a whole thing on Tomm Moore and The Secret of Kells, this Irish animated film. We're doing a segment on Neville Page, the creature designer on Avatar. It's an Oscar-related week. Eli Roth will be on.\n\nYou have a new ecutive producer, Stewart Bailey, formerly of The Daily Show. But you haven't been picked up yet for the 2010-2011 season. When will you hear?\n\n I have no idea. I don't know what the upfront schedule is, but typically sometime in the spring.\n\nAre you confident?\n\n You know, yeah, absolutely. I feel confident. [pause] That's about all I'll say about.\n\nYou came very close to cancellation in with this Leno-Conan war. Were you prepared for that?\n\n Ah, listen. The glass is always half-full in my world. The glass of beer."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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