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Today anchor Carson Daly’s broadcasting career has showcased his range of talent as an interviewer and as a host. It’s not easy to convey warmth and information at the same time, but Daly does it. He’s such a likable personality that viewers follow him wherever he goes, and the ratings prove it.

Carson Daly
Carson Daly | Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Since 2013, the 47-year-old has been a Feature Anchor on Today and host of NBC’s The Voice since its first season in 2011. Before that, Daly was the beloved host of the long-running Last Call with Carson Daly, which just ended in May 2019 after a 17-year run on NBC.

Find out more about the popular Today host, plus the one surprising person who was instrumental in helping Daly launch his successful career.

How he met Jimmy Kimmel

Daly got into Loyola Marymount University on a golf scholarship but decided instead to pursue a career in radio. He then was offered an internship at LA’s popular KROQ radio station with fellow star-in-the-making Jimmy Kimmel as his boss.

He explained on NBC’s Golf Channel how he and Kimmel met and became such good friends.

Jimmy Kimmel and Carson Daly
Jimmy Kimmel and Carson Daly | J.Sciulli/WireImage for Flying Television Productions

“I was 18 years old when I started at Loyola Marymount. [it] wasn’t for me. I went to my guidance counselor and said, ‘you’re gonna think I’m crazy, but how do I drop out of this place?'”

“Jimmy Kimmel and I met in Maui, with our families, I was on a family vacation. And Jimmy’s Catholic, and Jimmy and his priest, Father Bill, who’s still a close friend of ours, . . . were there in Maui. My mom and my dad started talking to this priest and he invited us to mass on the beach and that’s how we met.”

And how he became Kimmel’s intern

Daly continued in his conversation with Golf Channel, saying that Kimmel’s and his families kept in touch, visiting in Santa Monica one summer. Their paths crossed once again, in a way that proved very beneficial to Kimmel’s career.

“… [Kimmel] ended up in Palm Springs, I ended up in Palm Springs, and my parents opened up a shelter for battered women, which made it to the front page of The Desert Sun.”

Carson Daly appearing on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'
Carson Daly appearing on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ | Randy Holmes/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images

“And Jimmy sees this, he talked about it on the radio, got in touch with my parents, and they told him ‘Carson moved out to the desert.’ I went over there and met with him. He’s always been the big brother I never had, he said, ‘hey, if you want to be my intern.’

It was the opportunity Daly had been waiting for. As he said, “I never looked back.”

Daly’s net worth

Carson Daly’s net worth is $40 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Daly worked in top-rated radio stations in Los Angeles until eventually MTV heard his on-air talent and signed him up in 1998 to join MTV’s Total Request Live, which ran until 2008.

According to Yahoo, the broadcaster also owns around $20 million in real estate.

Read more: ‘Today Show’: How Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager Became Besties