Hosted by former MTV personality Carson Daly, the series was initially formatted as a studio-based late-night talk show, in line with its lead-ins "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night". In 2009, "Last Call" dropped its traditional talk show format, and began to consist of interview and performance segments filmed on-location by Daly. Unlike other programs in NBC's late night lineup, "Last Call" typically recorded only 24 weeks of original shows a year with the rest of the year being taken up by reruns.