Carson Daly On NBC's Shake-Ups, Life After MTV and Reinventing Late Night

What do you think of MTV rebranding itself and officially distancing itself from music?

It doesn't really surprise me. I don't think it surprises anybody. They have been distancing themselves from music since, really, I left. I left right when Laguna Beach was developed and it did really well. They have always wanted to be in the programming scripted world and they do it with great success for their audience. I don't really know since I am not there anymore. But I miss music videos in general. MTV used to be the only place for music videos and now you can get music videos with the click of a button from different sites and sources. They are a big company, and they were forced to do what they did. I will always wish the MTV well. They were great to me.

You have broken so many bands and cultural figures. Is there one you are especially proud of?

I can't really take credit. That would be very egocentric of me to say I had anything to do with a band's success. I was there at the time when Eminem broke. You know, Eminem and Kid Rock in particular were two artists that I personally sat in on meetings and said, "I am all for this. He's white, he raps but I really believe in him. I think he's the real deal." Kid Rock, the same thing on the rock side. Then they both ended up being tremendous artists.

But that was an exciting time to be around and be in the programming department at MTV and fight for what artists you believed in. You know, I fought for them to play the Eminem "My Name Is" video. The radio wasn't playing it -- they thought he was just a novelty. A few of us really believed he was going to be a great rapper and lo and behold, he was. There were a couple musical things like that that I look back on and think, "You know man, that's really cool." It was like high school. There was Britney and Christina and the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync and Eminem and Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit -- the bad boys and the pop queens. It was a really fun time to be around.

Do you watch anything on MTV now?

I don't. I really don't. I don't watch Jersey Shore. I am busy. I am a father now. I have a year-old son. I do a radio show in Los Angeles every morning from six to 10 and then

Last Call after that. I stay pretty busy. I am on the Internet quite a bit looking for interesting things to highlight on my show, but I don't catch up on TV quite as much as I used to.

Thanks, Carson. I'm enjoying the new format.

I appreciate that very much, I really do. Tell all your friends. We need all the people we can get to watch.

Pages: 1 2 3