Heavy/Getty "The Voice" host Carson Daly and "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest
Nine years after “American Idol” premiered on FOX and launched the careers of superstars including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert, and Jennifer Hudson, NBC created its own singing competition, debuting “The Voice” in April 2011 with its own celebrity panel and host. The show took off quickly and the two programs have been direct competitors ever since, with “The Voice” host Carson Daly and “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest still standing as the only original cast members on either show.
Daly, 50, recently revealed how his perspective on “American Idol” has changed over the years, given that he used to “hate” the show, and weighed in on what he thinks of Seacrest, 48. Here’s what you need to know:
Carson Daly Says He Originally Hated ‘American Idol’
GettyCarson Daly with Madonna on MTV in 2003
“The Voice” typically films two seasons of per year, in the spring and fall, while “Idol” — which moved to ABC in 2018 — continues to air once a year. But Daly, who rose to fame as a radio DJ and host of the hit show “TRL” on MTV, almost didn’t host the show at all, he told the hosts of the “Hey Dude! The ’90s Called” podcast on June 25, 2023.
“I hated ‘American Idol,’ I’ll be honest,” Daly said. “Like, coming from KROC in L.A. and MTV and having served a life of having friends in bands that were in vans and paid their dues. You know, this is before social media and you could blow up overnight and go viral.”
Calling himself a “music purist” when “Idol” first exploded on the scene, Daly said his view has since changed.
“This is all crap now because it was just really good entertainment, it was a great show and still is,” he said. “It’s a juggernaut. There wouldn’t be ‘The Voice’ if it wasn’t for ‘American Idol.’ 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 all of a sudden they’re on the radio. They didn’t have to, like, go in a van, they haven’t even suffered yet!’ That’s how a felt about it.”
“So, I didn’t have any interest when NBC said, ‘We have a singing competition.’ I was like, ‘Oh, F those!'”
But after watching the TV show from Holland that “The Voice” is based on, hearing that stars like Adam Levine were signing on to the coaching panel, and realizing that the NBC show wouldn’t “make fun of” contestants the way “Idol” often did in its early years, Daly finally agreed to host the series, which will air its 24th season this fall.
Back in 2011, as “The Voice” was about to launch, Daly told the New York Daily News, “I never wanted to do one of these shows. I turned them all down. But after I saw the Dutch show, I thought, ‘Okay, I can do this and still hold my head up.”
Carson Daly Says He’s Been ‘Friends Forever’ With Ryan Seacrest
GettyRyan Seacrest and Carson Daly attend the 69th Annual Golden Globes Viewing and After Party in 2012
With both shows still going strong, “The Voice” host says there’s no animosity between him and Seacrest.
When it was announced in June that Seacrest will fill Pat Sajak’s shoes as host of “Wheel of Fortune” starting in 2024, Daly told People that his hiring “certainly doesn’t surprise me, I mean, it seems like an obvious choice.”
Daly continued, “I was watching … old ‘Wheel of Fortunes’ with Mr. Sajak and Vanna White going back. He looked like a young Seacrest. So I guess it definitely makes sense.”
Both Daly and Seacrest got their starts in radio and wound up hosting entertainment TV shows, with Daly at MTV and Seacrest at E! News for many years. Daly has also been part of NBC’s “Today Show” cast for the past decade, while Seacrest just left his morning show TV gig at “Live With Kelly and Ryan” in May.
“I love Ryan,” Daly told People. “We’ve been friends forever. It’s amazing to me his desire to continue to work at such a high level. He’ll be great at (‘Wheel of Fortune’) and good luck to him.”