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Rockin' New Year's Eve with Carson Daly
by Troy Rogers
Ringing in the New Year with Carson Daly has felt
like a tradition on NBC and this year Daly will
be calling the shots again live from Times Square
in New York City, as millions across the country
wait for the first few seconds of 2010. This year
the countdown on New Year's Eve with Carson Daly
sees Green Day, Rihanna and more musical guests
perform live to celebrate the transition from
2009 to 2010 while Natalie Morales from the Today
Show reports from the thick of the Times Square
action to get the first-hand festive spirit from
thousands waiting to usher in the New Year.
Leading up to New Year's Eve with Carson Daly, we hopped on the line for a quick heads up from Carson Daly himself to find out how the New Year's show will be different and what Daly and crew have planned to usher in 2010.
THE DEADBOLT: What will it be like having Green Day on the show this year?
CARSON DALY: We're stoked that Green Day [will be there]. We have a long history with Green Day on our late night show. They've been a huge contributor and we have a great friendship with them and worked with them a great many times. So we reached out to them early on in the year, thinking there's no other big serious band that we would want, and they were nice enough to say yes. But Green Day is one of the musical performers on the show and we're about to add Rihanna into the mix. So between, Green Day, a punk rock band or whatever they want, and Rihanna and what she's been able to accomplish with her new album, we've got a great night ahead of us.
THE DEADBOLT: Do you ever envy Amy for getting to mingle with the crowd?
DALY: Do I envy her? You know, I do a lot of mingling in the crowd, but it's not necessarily on camera. It takes somebody like Amy, although Amy will not be joining us this year. We have two great sort of field correspondents that will be mingling in Natalie Morales from The Today Show, who David and I are both big fans of her work both professionally and personally. So she'll bring a nice addition to this year's show and Allison Stewart, who we've worked with before. It's a tough gig to find somebody who can be live in that. It's just such a crazy environment and they both do a great job.
Other Conference Call Highlights:
Do you guys kind of unwind
afterwards or do you just go home and sleep?
DALY: We've done a little bit of both over the years. You know, David and I, our first priority as soon as the production ... is over we're already talking about next year. It takes a huge effort from our staff, so we definitely want to go get a beer and say thanks to the crew and the people that made the show. That's kind of our first thing. We've done it a little more grandiose. We've had more of a Hollywood party afterward. Before we had 300 to 400 people and we've also had a very small sort of thing with just our staff. So I'm not sure what we'll do this year, but thanking the crew is the most important thing.
What's the most nerve
wracking thing? I mean, live TV is nerve wracking
as it is, but is there another element because
it's such a big thing that people look forward
to every year?
DALY: There's nothing really nerve wracking about it. One of the things, when I'm standing up there on the stage and I'm freezing and we're in a commercial break and we're a minute away, it's really exciting. I keep looking around me and I keep thinking to myself, "There are people at home somewhere in the mid-west watching this show right now on their TVs. Am I doing a good enough job of explaining what it's like? I'm standing here in the middle of it all." So my number one objective is to somehow articulate [that]. We do this obviously with our cameras and everything, but we really try and put the sense of there are a quarter of a million people here, they've been here for eight hours, they're all staring at a ball in the middle of Times Square in 30 degree weather. What does this feel like right now? That's the real exciting part.
Did you accomplish your
goals for 2000-2009? And what are your goals
for the next decade?
DALY: I definitely accomplished my goals, and more, in the decade. Making the transition from having a great time working at MTV to going into network television and spending the last 6-7 years on the late night show and getting it to the place that it's at now. I've moved to New York, I've started a family. I mean, it's just been a great decade both personally and professionally.
I'm adding a new job. I'm doing a radio show, which is going to add to my day, so 2010 will probably be a little bit busier. Hopefully between my new son and my new radio job I can get some sleep on the weekends.
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