‘Today’ Fans Want to Know: Where’s Carson Daly?

It's always jarring whenever one of your favorite personalities is missing from a show you regularly watch, especially one that airs daily, like The Today Show.

Many fans were bummed to see that Carson Daly wasn't present for a recent episode of the popular program. What happened to the host? Is he gone from the show for good?

It's not uncommon for longtime hosts to have to take a day off or two from a recurring daily program. Back in 2017, Carson had to step away from filming for personal reasons. When Carson was missing again recently, many assumed it might be because of the health issues he opened up about in June 2022.

"For years, I was too scared to ever get an MRI because of my panic attacks," he said, speaking about finally addressing his chronic lower back pain. "Because it's so claustrophobic... So I put this whole thing off for years."

He was finally able to get a different kind of MRI, which led to a procedure that would finally help relieve the pain he'd been living with for over 20 years. "It is not a cure-all," he said on TODAY, "but I'm glad I did it."

One of Carson's earliest and biggest roles that made him a household name was MTV's Total Request Live. The daily program was a huge phenomenon and featured its fair share of controversial, bizarre, and incredible moments. Like the time No Doubt performed a cover of "It's the End of the World (As We Know It)" and absolutely rocked the joint.

Then there were some more unsavory moments that Carson managed to handle with aplomb, like when Liam Gallagher showed up to the studios like a total rockstar, not looking Carson in the eyes and being extremely aloof, flippant, and defiant. Then there was that bizarre surprise appearance where Mariah Carey crashed the set (unbeknownst to Carson), took off an oversized "Loverboy" t-shirt (promoting her new single), and proceeded to call TRL her "therapy."

Carson was also the host of Last Call for a whopping 17 years. The show had a traditionally scaled back production when compared to other late, late-night shows, however. Carson and the production crew recorded for 24 weeks as opposed to almost entirely year-round, but that opened him up to other hosting gigs.

The Santa Monica, Calif. native also appeared on a staggering 392 episodes of The Voice (which he also executively produced) and is a longtime fixture of the music singing competition series. Much of his time these days seems to be absorbed with Today. He's appeared in 1,564 airings of Today (as of this writing).

It doesn't look like Carson's going to stop his hosting duties in high-profile talk shows anytime soon, and he's made a fine career out of it thus far. His net worth stands at a reported $40 million. Not too shabby for a kid with dreams of becoming a pro-golfer who transitioned into radio.