Yesterday, we learned that late-night talk show mannequin Carson Daly will begin production of his show, Last Call, again even though the show’s writers are currently on strike.

My reaction to this news was, I think, typical: “That show had writers?”

Last Call is dreadful, which is why NBC put it on at 1:35 a.m. to compete against reruns of Will and Grace and Guthy-Renker infomericals. But apparently Daly thought America had suffered too long without B-list celebrities (Criss Angel last night, David Arquette tonight) to talk about their upcoming basic cable projects, so back he comes.

Now, some are writing that this could be a sign that other late night talk show hosts will weaken and head back in front of the camera, but that’s unlikely given that Jay Leno has been bringing pizza to guys on the picket line and David Letterman and Conan O’Brien are both paying their staffs out of their own pockets.

What is surprising is that there are people who are outraged by Daly’s decision, as if to suggest that they were shocked by it. This is shocking in itself since Daly has always been a corporate stooge, that, in fact has always been his one, and only, talent a fact nailed when Jimmy Fallon, on Saturday Night Live, uttered the devastating summation: “I’m Carson Daly and I’m a massive tool.”

Daly’s rise to national fame had always been curious to locals who knew him as a rather middling DJ at KROQ with nothing really interesting to say and no real interesting way to say it. Apparently that’s exactly what MTV was looking for when they made him the host of Total Request Live; someone with a brain would have clashed with the intellectual water mark set by Britney Spears and 14-year-olds whose musical commentary ranged from “Woooooo!” to “Yeah, woooooo!”

That worked and NBC thought it could somehow use that same formula on late night, but against the likes of his intellectual- and entertainment-superiors–Letterman, O’Brien, even the underrated Craig Ferguson–Daly’s true talent, or lack thereof, shown through: his massive head and vapor-like patter gave him the appearance of a giant, novelty cotton swab wrapped in fine suits.

Now the swab is coming back, soliciting fans, friends, even family, to call in their jokes to a company phone machine for use on his show. Pathetic? You bet. Surprising? Not in the least. This is what is left for a first-rate, second-rate man devoid of talent. Oh, and integrity.

Tags: Carson Daly, KROQ, Last Call, Long Beach, writer's strike