NBC announced yesterday evening that they’ve renewed their 1:35am talk show Last Call with Carson Daly for another season. The news comes just a day after The New York Times reported that Alec Baldwin is in talks with the network to host his own late night show, which was expected to take over Carson Daly’s late, late slot. Daly, who’s a big asset to NBC as host of its #1 show The Voice, has been hosting Last Call since 2002. The renewal will mark a 13th season for the series, carrying it through 2014. In 2009, due to budgetary reasons, Last Call was transitioned from a traditional late night talk show with a studio, band, and comedy segments to being filmed on location with a small crew.
So, what does that mean for Alec Baldwin’s reported late night show? The Times’ assertion that he would take Last Call’s timeslot was just a guess as to the most likely place on the schedule that his potential series would land. An NBC source tells E! that “[Baldwin’s] name was mentioned as a possibility, but there were never any negotiations.†Despite that, Carson Daly’s renewal doesn’t necessarily mean Baldwin’s hypothetical late night show is called off. Baldwin is under contract to develop programming with NBC through 2014, and there’s still room for his late night show to land a weekly slot on NBC’s schedule. A post-Saturday Night Live 1am timeslot, where NBC doesn’t have a big show, could be a nice fit for the potential series, and doing it weekly would allow Baldwin plenty of time to focus on his acting career and other endeavors. Another possibility is Baldwin’s show taking a weekly 10pm timeslot, an hour that NBC has struggled to find hits for in recent years, though similar(ish) 10pm programs like The Jay Leno Show and Rock Center with Brian Williams have struggled in the ratings too. Time will tell whether NBC gives America a chance to fall asleep to Alec Baldwin’s gravelly, soothing voice once a week or not.