Carson Daly

MTV's "Total Request Live," familiarly known as "TRL," went to its rest Sunday night with a three-hour special, "Total Finale Live." The actual last regularly scheduled "TRL" aired Thursday afternoon, as workmen dismantled the set around final hosts Damien Fahey and Lyndsey Rodrigues, (nonperforming) guest band the All-American Rejects, actor-producer Seth Green and the studio audience, who, by the looks of them, were still in elementary school when the show went on the air in 1998. The "American Bandstand" (and also the "Today" show")

NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly" is about to become the first late-night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production. Daly, who is not a member of the Writers Guild, will begin taping new episodes of his Burbank-based show this week for airing next week, an NBC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Daly is not the first talk-show host to go back into production.

Carson Daly returned to the air Monday night -- early Tuesday morning, actually -- without his writers, who are, of course, on strike. He is the first and will possibly be the only late-night talk show to go back on the air before the opposing parties shake hands, and his stated reason is the same offered by Ellen DeGeneres, who earlier recommenced her afternoon show: He is doing it for his (nonwriting) staff, who otherwise would be laid off.

CARSON DALY knows exactly where he'll be one week from tonight, zipped into a parka and patrolling the happy chaos of Times Square. It will be the fourth outing for his New Year's Eve special on NBC at 11:35 p.m., and to help celebrate, the host has tapped pop singers Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz. That's what the nationwide TV audience will see, anyway, but this time around the behind-the-scenes story involving Daly is a lot more complicated -- and dramatic -- than usual.

For music fans, it's increasingly worth it to stay up late -- or at least to check the listings for late-night shows with some TiVo consideration. The reason is, there has never been a time when so many network late-night talk shows are willing to take so many chances with their music bookings.

CARSON DALY NBC talk show host There was never a better time to be a music fan than in 2005. With iTunes and iPods, making playlists, burning CDs ... having a friend tell you about a song and instantly you can get it. Ironically, all the things that made it so great for fans are the same reasons that the music industry is in trouble. The record I can't get off my iPod is by Amos Lee ... just a great artist. Damian "Jr.

A little more than a year ago, "Last Call With Carson Daly" landed on NBC's late-night landscape with a thud. When viewers tuned in for the premiere, a rerun of "SCTV" greeted them, thanks to a last-minute contract dispute between Daly and the network. When viewers finally saw "Last Call" the next night, a fair number of them already were longing for Ed Grimley.

NBC finalized a contract with television personality Carson Daly on Tuesday after an unusual standoff had caused a last-minute postponement of the MTV host's new late-night talk show. "Last Call With Carson Daly" had taped its first two installments and was scheduled to premiere Tuesday at 1:35 a.m., but NBC pulled the half-hour show's debut installment minutes before its scheduled air time, apparently over a series of unresolved contractual issues.

It's almost show time, and the daily madness that greets MTV's "Total Request Live" is gearing up on the street outside the music channel's Times Square headquarters. Sullen cops and wooden barricades are in place to hem in the crowd, which consists mostly of young girls from strange, distant lands like Wisconsin, Georgia and Long Island. One floor up, the panes of the window-lined studio are already vibrating from cheers and thumping music.