Daly will make nightly 'Last Call'

I'm looking forward to Carson Daly taking over the ultra-late NBC talk show formerly known as "Later." "Last Call With Carson Daly" premieres at 12:37 a.m. tonight on NBC (Channel 41), immediately following "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." The host of MTV's "Total Request Live" - and best bud of wannabe rock stars everywhere - takes over a time slot in which NBC has been airing 20-year-old "SCTV" reruns for the past year since canceling "Later," a show that began in 1988 with Bob Costas and two overstuffed chairs. In a sense, "Last Call" returns to those humble origins. After being based in Burbank for seven years, the show once again will originate from New York. Gone, too, is the desk that was brought in for Greg Kinnear. But the similarities end there: Expect a studio audience that is young and excitable, that will no doubt whoop and holler when singer Alicia Keys (tonight) and rapper Suge Knight (Wednesday) are in the house. Besides bantering with Daly, the musicians will perform their latest hits; this week's other guests, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jon Stewart, presumably will not. I expect Daly to do well, and not just because this is a low-risk time period. He wears well. He doesn't try to shout over the din around him; instead, he blocks it out and talks directly to the home audience. He has a mild, self-effacing presence - not what you'd expect from one of the most influential people in the music business. All Daly needs is a game show or two to produce, and he'll be well on his way to Dick Clarkdom. Food Network launches three new series this week. At 9 tonight, "Follow That Food" features washed-up talk-show host Gordon Elliott visiting exotic locales around the world to see where familiar gourmet ingredients are produced. If this sounds vaguely familiar to you, that's because former Channel 9 personality Dave Eckert had the idea first. His "Culinary Travels" airs at 3 p.m. Saturdays on KCPT. Next, at 9:30, is a cooking show in which Keith Famie - the "Survivor" chef who couldn't cook a decent pot of rice - visits exotic locales around the world to taste gourmet food. But these two programs are mere preludes to Tuesday's main course: "A Cook's Tour," featuring Tony Bourdain, one of the country's top chefs, surly author of the best seller Kitchen Confidential and clearly Food Network's pick to become the next Emeril. In the opening episode of "A Cook's Tour," airing at 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays (following "The Naked Chef"), Bourdain visits Japan and accompanies one of the country's top sushi chefs on his rounds. At the big Tokyo fish market, and again back at the kitchen, he is overwhelmed by what he sees and smells. "I'm going to start weeping," he says. Of a large, red, exotic-looking fish he murmurs, "This has a strange and terrible beauty to it." Later, at the sushi table, he groans, "I'm experiencing a pleasurable form of dementia." You get the feeling Bourdain isn't putting us on. He seems genuinely in awe of world food and the virtuosos who prepare it for human consumption. Of his Japanese hosts he declares, "There's a sense of solemnity here. No nonsense. No distraction. Nothing fake about it." Nor does there seem anything fake about Bourdain, which bodes well for this engaging series. "Hello He Lied," a new documentary airing at 9 p.m. Tuesday on AMC, offers a lively and useful introduction to the life of the Hollywood producer. Based on the book by Lynda Obst, the journalist-turned-producer of "Contact" and "Sleepless in Seattle," "Hello He Lied" doesn't offer any startling revelations but is filled with fascinating real-life vignettes from the lives of more than a dozen producers. The cameras follow these people everywhere - into contentious meetings with screenwriters, brainstorming sessions with staff and, of course, networking sessions over lunch. And Obst is an engaging host of the hour-long program. KCPT profiles three area Muslim families and asks them how their lives have changed since Sept. 11 on "East 31st Street," airing at 7 p.m. Wednesday on Channel 19. Comcast, which serves 100,000 cable customers in Independence, Olathe and other area communities, recently added C-SPAN3. Reach Aaron Barnhart at (816) 234-4790 or www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Daly @ART:Photo (color)