As if Last Call with Carson Daly wasn't unbearable to watch with writers, the erstwhile TRL host is crossing picket lines to bring his unfunny shtick back to air, sans scribes. Actually, he's enlisted the help of his scabby family, in what seems to be an attempt to make precisely no one laugh—anywhere, ever again.

Sure, Daly may have faced pressure from NBC to return to the air, but did the guy shed his testicles in his recent slim-down? Couldn't a former *NSYNC member loan him some money in a pinch? (Wait, never mind.) Factor in fellow NBC host Conan O'Brien's universally lauded decision to pay staffers out of his own pocket, and Carson comes off as the toolish Curious George lookalike we've always suspected him of being. The only thing left to do is phone PR maven Howard Bragman from 15 Minutes PR.

Former Mr. Taradise, you're in the PR/ER!

Stop trying to appease your bosses
BRAGMAN: "Certainly he has in the back of his mind that in 2009 there will be lot of little shifts going on at NBC. There's going to be a lot of chess played with the talk show hosts. He'd certainly rather be a knight than a pawn. This may have knighted him eternally. But when there's a lot of pressure and there's a lot on the line, that's when your real class can show. So I think this was the wrong decision."

Follow the leaders
"If I was Carson Daly and I saw that Jay Leno and Conan were doing one thing and I'm doing another, wouldn't that make me a little nervous? Jay's serving pizza, Conan's setting up a strike fund. What am I doing wrong?"

Good luck getting guests
"Who is going to go on celebrity-wise right now? I'm certainly going to think twice before I let people go on there. I'm not sure who's going to be booked. You can always hope there's a good klezmer band that needs to push its new album."