One day around Christmas a couple of years ago, my friend and I were tooling around Rockefeller Center, home of NBC, when someone came up to us and asked us if we wanted to see a talk show.

"Uh, which show is it?" we asked warily, knowing that any of NBC's popular shows have audience lines going out the door.

"Last Call with Carson Daly!" the probable intern chirpily replied.

"No thanks," we said dismissively, as if she was a Hare Krishna in a banana suit holding out cupons for free smoothies. The dejected intern went to go beg other rubes (oops, I mean visitors) to see her boss' show.

That's what I think of when I think of Last Call, even after it moved to Los Angeles: it's a show that can't even find enough people to fill its studio audience, much less watch it on TV. I mean, really, it's on at 1:30 in the morning. At this point of the night, only hallucinating insomniacs, stoned college students, and people who drink coffee at 11:00 at night (like I did tonight) are watching the show.

So why do I see reasonably decent stars booked on the show? Tonight, for instance is my girl Sarah Chalke from Scrubs and singer Ben Harper (who's actually there all week). Do either of these people need the tiny amount of publicity being on a talk show at 1:30 in the morning brings? What's drawing them to Carson? My mind is boggling, but I might just be coming down from the caffeine. If anyone knows, please tell me in the comments.