He's One Of The Top TV Hosts Out There — Carson Daly's Career, Explained

Carson Daly is known far and wide as one of the most popular television hosts of our time thanks to his gigs on both The Voice and the TODAY show. In fact, America has been familiar with Daly as a TV personality for decades.

On USA Network, Daly added yet another TV show to his impressive hosting career by teaming with Blake Shelton and Nikki Bella to make the new celebrity-focused game show, Barmageddon. After entering is 50s in 2023, Daly has been in show business a while and is no stranger to launching new projects and finding success among American audiences. However, there was a time when he had significantly different aspirations. 

How Did Carson Daly Begin His Career?

Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC

Daly attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles on a golfing scholarship. He initially dreamed of hitting the links professionally but told his TODAY co-host, Hoda Kotb, in 2019 that he also toyed with the idea of becoming a Catholic priest. Ultimately, he ended up pursuing neither of those careers, instead allowing his love of music to win out. 

RELATED: 'Barmageddon' Stars Blake Shelton, Carson Daly's Best Quotes About Their Friendship

He dropped out of college to work at a radio station in Los Angeles as an intern to none other than current late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Speaking during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers in 2020, Daly explained their families vacationed together when he was young. Years later, they reconnected and Kimmel offered him an internship on his radio show. That made him realize what he wanted to do with his life. He told Meyers at the time that he believes everything he has he owes to Kimmel. 

How Did Carson Daly Land TRL and other TV?

At age 23, Daly finally had his own on-air job at KROQ in Los Angeles. That’s when he was discovered by MTV. He began moonlighting for them as a host in various on-camera capacities for $600 a day, according to Forbes. By 1998, he’d quit the radio and moved full-time to MTV, where he quickly became the face of the network thanks to the popularity of Total Request Live. He spent the next five years interviewing celebrities and becoming a recognizable name in pop culture himself. 

Daly, who describes himself as a workaholic, got back into radio in 2001. Now with a little bit of notoriety at his back, he signed a five-year deal with Premiere Radio Networks to host Carson Daly’s Most Requested. He also straddled two networks and began hosting the late-night series Last Call With Carson Daly.

By 2003, he ended his run on TRL and focused his efforts on being a late-night host. He further expanded his role within the NBC umbrella by hosting its New Year’s Eve coverage.

Both he and Blake Shelton were the only on-camera faces who stayed with the show throughout its entire run until the country singer and Carson's good friend finally tipped his hat and moved on in 2023. His work as a producer earned Daly his first Emmy Award as well. 

Over the years, he expanded his role and is now a co-host of the entire show. He finally ended Last Call with Carson Daly in 2019 and began to focus all his time on TODAY and The Voice. However, as mentioned, Daly upped his hosting game back to three shows at the end of 2022 with Barmageddon. This time he had the help of his dear friend, Shelton, and his other celebrity pals. Heading into Season 2, Daly will just have to serve some drinks, crack wise, and enjoy himself at Ole Red in Nashville. 

You can catch him on The Voice and on Barmageddon on Peacock now.