Now that Blake Shelton has left The Voice, Carson Daly remains the only on-screen presence who’s been with the show since its 2011 premiere. The longtime host seems to really enjoy the gig of ushering contestants through the stages of the singing competition while keeping the celebrity coaches in check; however, Daly recently admitted he “hated American Idol” when it first started, and his opinion of singing competitions in general prompted a less-than-enthusiastic response to being offered The Voice.
Carson Daly has appeared on well over 500 episodes of The Voice, and he will continue to lead the competition sereis when it hits the 2023 TV schedule with Season 24 this fall. But he apparently didn’t always have positive thoughts about the idea of artists skyrocketing to fame on television, according to his comments on the Hey Dude… The 90s Called podcast. In fact, he admitted:
I hated American Idol, I’ll be honest. Coming from KROQ in L.A. and MTV and having served a life of having friends in bands that were in vans and paid their dues and, you know, this was before social media and you could blow up overnight and go viral.
There’s no doubt Carson Daly has seen his share of rags-to-riches stories from his time on radio and on MTV’s TRL, and he apparently had a bad taste in his mouth for singers who could get famous without having to put in the same amount of work and sacrifice as others he’d seen.
He did say that line of thinking is “all crap now,” and American Idol remains a “juggernaut,” that paved the way for The Voice. But back in the early aughts, that wasn’t his mindset. Carson Daly continued:
But at the time, when it started, I was just like, ‘Oh, this is like a cheat. Like, people are going on TV and becoming famous on American Idol, and then all of a sudden they’re on the radio. Like, they didn’t have to go in a van. They haven’t even suffered yet.’ That’s how I felt about it. So I didn’t have any interest when NBC said, ‘We have a singing competition.’ I was like, ‘Oh, eff those.’
It’s hard to imagine The Voice without Carson Daly, but it sounds like he wasn’t too excited about the opportunity when it was presented. He went on to say that watching Holland’s version of the show helped to change his perspective, when he saw how “cool” it was. He also pointed out how NBC’s show was different because it didn’t make fun of its contestants the way American Idol did, and it allowed the artists to be themselves. Daly said:
We were telling LGBTQ+ stories. We wanted real people. Some people would go on other shows, and their true selves, the producers would be like, ‘No, you’re gonna be the, like, pretty little girl that’s gonna sing, like, the Taylor Swift character,’ and at The Voice we were like, ‘No you’re gonna be you. Your story’s gonna be your story.’
It’s kind of funny to hear his initially negative opinion of how American Idol helped launch its contestants to fame, especially given how close Carson Daly is now to Kelly Clarkson, American Idol’s first winner. In addition to welcoming the former coach of The Voice to New York amidst her talk show’s big move, Clarkson was also in attendance when Daly celebrated his 50th birthday on Today.
The music world has definitely changed since Carson Daly’s days of radio, and the path to fame looks a lot different. We’ll be able to see him attempt to help more singers find success when The Voice returns with Reba McEntire joining the coaching panel.
