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Carson Daly on his favorite New Year's memories from hosting over the years:
Daly: One of my favorite memories - and I don't know [what] year it was. But Billy Joe from Green Day, the lead singer. We did a special - we would have at MTV; there would be like eight bands, or eight artists playing all throughout the night. I remember one year, I think it was the millennium, I was on the air live for six straight hours, or maybe eight hours, doing the final top 100 video countdown. That went from like 7am until 1am in the morning or something like that. And at midnight we would always do a special sort of performance. And Billy Joe - I have never seen somebody so intoxicated. He could not get through, I think "Time of Your Life", you know the big Green Day song. And we were all just having such a good time and he ran downstairs in Times Square in his punk rock shorts, and I think Kurt Loader was doing the news outside just after midnight, he [Billie Joe] started to climb the scaffolding. And that was a great memory. There's a lot of them. Marilyn Manson also tried to jump through the glass in the middle of his song, like literally threw his body into the glass.
Daly on the decision to return to work amid the writers' strike:
Daly: ... I will say that, as I said in my official statement and then as I said on the air, that first night back there was only reason we came back on the air, and that was to save the jobs of 75 staff and crew that I felt have been extremely loyal to me. And let's just say that shortly after the taping of the first show, I was very quickly reminded of just how right that tough decision was. They were very appreciative.
Daly on what it was like the first time he experienced New Year's Eve in New York City:
Daly: It's hard to describe. It sounds like a cliché every year when I do press for it. I think the best way - it's just - the best [way] for me to describe it is that the one year I wasn't there, I think in 2003, I was suffering withdrawals. I was out of the country and I saw it on TV in New York, and I thought, "Wow, that's where I need to be. Standing on the riser." I think NBC also has the best real estate of all the networks there. And I, you know, am fortunate enough to be the one standing up there, so I sort have the best view. And to be in a sea of half-million people, and to be live on television, to be a broadcaster that night, I look forward to it every year.
David Friedman on presenting the show and what they want to offer viewers:
Friedman: The most important thing for us when we format and produce this show, is to make sure that we are living in the moment and being a vehicle for anyone who's not lucky enough to be in Times Square. Because again, you know, as cliché as it does sound, it is an amazing experience when you're in Times Square. And when Carson is standing in the middle of that sea of madness which is - it's just - you can't really explain it. So we try every year to do our best to try to give viewers, whether they're in a bar, on a living room couch, wherever they are, to give them the sensation that we're sort of experiencing live, and that's a challenge. But that's what we live to do. So it's a combination of giving you some visual stuff, some great music, and then really trying to make you feel like you're there with us. And that's - I think we do it pretty well. And every year we try to do it better.
Carson Daly on some of the highlights of 2007:
Daly: I felt like, you know... that last year was the first full year for me to be back in Los Angeles. After, I don't know, 12 years. I had been in New York for almost ten and San Francisco prior that and New York for a - or LA... But this is my first full year back and I think for me the real highlight - it wasn't any one particular thing. My sister just had a kid who's two years old, and to spend as much time as I did in the last year with my - I have one sister - and her first kid. And my parents are close by. All of the family time that was tough for me in New York, you know. I was there with my mom who’s a breast cancer survivor. When she was diagnosed, I was in New York. You know, there's just so many things that have happened that I felt like I wasn't around for. And so the last year for me, just family wise, is just the most important thing. So there's been a lot of that. And as far as on the entertainment side. I mean just the sheer growth of Last Call... I mean, what we've been able to do, what's been given to us, and the way in which we've done it has been really exciting and, [there have] been a lot of great moments on the late night show.
-- Troy Rogers
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