Carson Daly is now known as the longtime host of The Voice, but he wasn't always a fan of singing competition shows. In fact, his negative attitude towards shows that allow singers to earn "overnight" fame almost caused him to pass up the offer of hosting The Voice.
In an interview on the podcast, Hey Dude... The 90s Called!, Daly shared the very strong thoughts he had about competition shows like American Idol in the early 2000s.
"I hated American Idol, I'll be honest," he says [quote via CinemaBlend].
He adds that due to his background in radio and on MTV, he believed that artists needed to put in the hard work of making it on their own before finding fame.
Daly's opinions weren't uncommon for the time, as prior to shows like Idol, there really was no quick path to success in the music industry. His views even continued into the late 2000s/early 2010s when he was first offered the gig to host The Voice.
"At the time, when [Idol] started, I was just like, 'Oh, this is like a cheat. Like, people are going on TV and becoming famous on American Idol, and then all of a sudden they're on the radio. Like, they didn't have to go in a van. They haven't even suffered yet,'" he says. "That's how I felt about it. So I didn't have any interest when NBC said, 'We have a singing competition.' I was like, 'Oh, eff those.'"
Daly's opinion on the matter has certainly changed now, especially in a day and age when singers can "blow up overnight and go viral" on social media.
As a producer on the show, Daly prides himself on how The Voice conducted itself in its early years. He says the biggest difference between The Voice and other shows at the time was that the coaches encouraged the contestants to be themselves.
"We were telling LGBTQ+ stories. We wanted real people," he says. "Some people would go on other shows, and be their true selves, the producers would be like, 'No, you're gonna be the, like, pretty little girl that's gonna sing, like, the Taylor Swift character,' and at The Voice we were like, 'No you're gonna be you. Your story's gonna be your story.'"
Daly returns as host on Season 24 of The Voice, which will premiere this fall.
