Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest are roughly the same age (early 30s), have similar job descriptions (broadcasters/emcees-turned-producers with a pop-music bent) and even favor the same fashionably I-didn’t-shave-this-morning look. But Daly dismisses any notion that the pair is engaged in a fizzy rivalry to replace you-know-who.
“Dick Clark is a huge inspiration for the huge success he’s achieved,” Daly said in a recent interview. “But that’s where I stop. The world is changing. I’m young; I have my own thoughts as a producer.”
It’s purely coincidental that Daly and Seacrest will be back tonight for their second annual New Year’s Eve programming duel, which threatens to become an annual rite as the 77-year-old Clark continues recovering from a 2004 stroke.
Seacrest, Clark’s heir apparent, will again do the heavy lifting in the booth for “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2007,” ABC’s 3 1/2-hour extravaganza (10:30 p.m., KMHG-Channel 7). Clark expects to make a brief appearance.
The chief competition will be “NBC’s New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly, Presented by Chevrolet” (11:30 p.m., KUSA-Channel 9).
Daly, former host of MTV’s “TRL” and current host of NBC’s late-night talkfest “Last Call,” is going after a cooler, hipper vibe. The tunes will come from alternative rockers such as Panic! at the Disco and OK Go.
The important goal, Daly said, is to cover the Times Square party as a live story. That’s why NBC will deliberately focus more on the crowds, the confetti, the insanity.
But really, can’t the networks just take the night off? Aren’t there too few sober people planted on their sofas for television execs to bother with? To answer the last two: no and no.
Broadcasters started tussling for exclusive rights to the nation’s No.1 party night almost as soon as the medium was invented. Guy Lombardo’s radio telecasts from New York, which started in 1929, proved wildly popular.
Last year’s ratings make it depressingly clear that, when the last night of the year rolls around, many of us still have nothing better to do than … yes, watch more TV.
Planting the flag on New Year’s “really brands a network,” said Tim Brooks, a TV historian and executive vice president of research at Lifetime Entertainment.
And you can’t get much cheaper programming-wise than training live cameras on drunk revelers.
