Well, almost.
    From his big break on the Infinity-owned radio station KROQ in Los Angeles, to his own show "Total Request Live" on MTV, to his broadcast TV appearances on CBS, the story of Carson Daly’s success belongs to Viacom.
   I’m sure legions of young girls will tell you that the success is because of his winning smile and goofy personality. (His movie star fiancée, Tara Reid, must be sooooooo lucky.)
    But let’s be real: Carson is simply the company man of the new media company. He hasn’t worked his way up the system, he is the system—the new, global system. He’s Viacom’s poster boy for synergy.
    Viacom created, and now Viacom perpetuates, the Carson Daly myth—that this guy is famous, cool, and hip with the youngsters—even though there’s no real evidence outside MTV and Viacom’s promotional activities to prove this true.
   The young women constantly outside his window, screaming his name and carrying "I Luv U, Carson" posters, don’t count either. They’re easy marks for the Carson Daly myth, already full believers in MTV as the gospel of teenage cool.
    Same goes for their parents.
    In truth, Carson is simply the Dick Clark of the next generation. A guy who was never really cool but had a pretty cool job. Once Carson starts making cameos on CBS sitcoms, his fate will be sealed—hosting New Year’s Eve from Times Square for the next thirty years, when the next young guy will come along.
    To be fair, it’s not really Carson’s fault that he’s worked for so many different Viacom companies. Most aspiring DJs and VJs would love to work for either KROQ or MTV, and network TV exposure is hard to turn down at any point in a career.
    But it’s Viacom’s trotting out of Carson whenever it wants a youth infusion, particularly on CBS, that’s a nauseating sign of things to come, as media companies become all-encompassing entertainment entities.
    Just last week, Carson awkwardly hosted parts of the David Copperfield special in a lame bid by CBS to attract young viewers. It didn’t work because a magic show is too uncool for even Carson to overcome, but the cross-network stunt begs the question: What on earth does Carson Daly, famous purveyor of trendy music videos, have to do with David Copperfield, famous for performing traditional, if excellent, illusions to cheesy accompanying music?
    The answer is youth, and nothing else. CBS thought Carson could bring a young audience that neither Copperfield nor the network could attract on its own.
    Which makes Carson even more like Dick Clark, who has outlived the rise and fall of his own generation’s pop culture by becoming the most recognizable symbol of youth culture for his network. However incongruent or ironic it may look now, it’s still "Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve."
    Similarly, Viacom has decided to make Carson Daly the go-to guy for the youth of the new millennium, instead of developing youthful, on-air talent for each of its properties.
    Whenever Viacom wants young people to tune in, Carson will be there. At least for another thirty years.

April 9, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

- Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.

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