MTV's last vestige of hope for any sort of music video programming ends this Sunday, with the finale of Total Request Live. Though the show was oft-annoying and gave birth to the monstrously bland juggernaut that is Carson Daly, let's take a moment to remember together: don't visit Times Square tomorrow afternoon.

Don't worry though! MTV will still keep their facade going at 1515 Broadway, despite the rent hike and despite the fact that they no longer need those giant windows for their tween fans to scream up to.

Carson Daly, who returned to his day job even though a little thing called "the WGA is on strike" was going on, just received the door prize for having such machismo: NBC is slashing his budget and firing most of his writers. You know, those fellas who were, oh what was it? On strike.

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DAMNED IF YOU DO … “An ultimatum was put in front of me … It was, 'Put a new show on Dec. 3 or 75 people are fired. What's your answer?'" says Carson Daly, explaining his decision to cross the WGA picket lines. See that’s the thing about being a tool: either way, you come off like one. [LAT]

STEWART/COLBERT '08 Joining Conan, Leno, Letterman, Ferguson and trail blazer, Carson Daly, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert will return with new shows, produced without writers, starting January 7. [NYT]

Forget About This Strike Jimmy Kimmel will return live starting January 2 joining Leno and Conan and probably Dave Letterman and Craig Ferguson. Happy New Year, networks! Does this mean Carson Daly was cutting edge? [USAT]

Thing are looking good for insomniacs. NBC’s Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno are probably going to return to late night in early January, even if the WGA strike doesn’t get resolved, which it won’t. There’s talk of a joint picket crossing with CBS’s David Letterman and Craig Ferguson. The competing networks have finally found a common enemy: The Struggling writer. [Variety]

Well, it’s come to this. Striking writers have so little to do they’ll hit up a taping of Last Call With Carson Daly.

On Tuesday night, strikers snuck into the studio audience of Last Call, a move not approved by the Guild, and reminded Carson Daly what middle school was like.

According to a tipster to Defamer, a few of the writers interrupted Daly before a producer warned that hecklers would be prosecuted, at which point over 20 people left the studio audience.

It’s hard to tell what makes Carson Daly look worse: crossing the picket line or the fact that 20 people can so easily crash a taping even with only Ellen taping new shows.

Jay Leno, what a great guy! The late night host is going to personally pay the salaries of his staff through Christmas. It’s amazing how Carson Daly can cross the picket line and Jay Leno can finance his staff, and they both can still end up looking like tools.

Last week, the Boston Phoenix had an interesting article about how the writers strike is shaping political coverage for young adults. Guess what? Alessandra Stanley has a piece about the return of Carson Daly that touches on many of those same points. Well, what are you going to do? Of course, other than get all self-righteous and annoyed?

Back in his TRL days, Carson Daly proved he was good at sucking up to celebrities. Turns out, he’s good at sucking up to executives too.

Daly will be the first late night talk show host to cross the picket line and resume production of Last Call With Carson Daly. The show is taping this week, and will begin airing Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Knowing that he couldn’t come up with jokes himself, The Smoking Gun has obtained an email Daly sent to his friends, family and doctor New York [Ed: If Carson finds doctor humor funny, reruns of The Colbert Report will be more entertaining] asking them call into a joke hotline.

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