CARSON DALY- You guys watch LOST on ABC? You watch that show? (audience applause) Good show...I think it's one of the best shows on TV. I think it's funny, I'll tell you what I love about the show LOST. The show itself, in the plotlines, what's going on there with these survivors...it's so incredibly complicated , there's so many things left unanswered that even dumb guys like me don't feel left out. (audience laughter)  That's it. Apparently you're not supposed to know what's happening on the show and I like it that way. Our first guest plays Boone on the huge ABC hit show called LOST. He's right over there...say hi to Ian Somerhalder. (audience hollers and applauds)

 

CARSON- What's up, dude? Great to have you here, man.

 

IAN- Thanks. It's good to be here.

 

CARSON- Happy New Year to you.

 

IAN- Happy New Year to you as well.

 

CARSON- Congratulations on LOST...boy this thing is just like a monster monster hit now.

 

IAN- Yeah, it kinda got that way.

 

CARSON- The premises of LOST, if you haven't seen it...I know that many of you have, is basically there's a plane crash and then like the 12 most beautiful people on the plane survive....and that's it. Like you.

 

IAN (laughs)

 

CARSON- And your sister on the show who's super hot.

 

IAN- I know. Where's the picture of her ?

 

A photo of Maggie Grace as Shannon is shown...the audience hollers and whoops it up.

 

CARSON- Wow.

 

IAN- Why is she my sister?

 

CARSON- Is there any chance the two of you will hook up on the show?

 

IAN- I wish. When I first met her in the makeup trailer, I talked to... I went straight to Damon Lindelof, who's our executive producer and creator, and J.J., and said why is she my sister? And they just laughed and walked off.      

 

CARSON- Things are so freaky on this, like, LOST island that it wouldn't surprise...we were just talking about it before, if like she wasn't your sister and you guys could have sex at the end of the season. You should get in their ear on that now, Ian.

 

IAN- Call them.

 

CARSON- Yes, make a phone call. That's all right.

 

IAN- I would love that (laughs)

 

CARSON- I guess initially...tell me in the beginning when you guys first, when you got the script for LOST...was there any sense in your own mind that this could either be a hit hit show and huge...or just awful ? The premise is like Gilligan's Island meets The X Files to some degree.

 

IAN- (pointing to Carson) Easy. No, it's....well, yeah, I guess you can say that.

 

CARSON- But it works.

 

IAN- No,no,no...I know you can say that.

 

CARSON- It's crazy. Like your sister on the show...a day after the plane crash is giving herself like a pedicure.

 

IAN- I know.

 

CARSON- And you're watching this at home and it's just like...but somehow the whole thing works.

 

IAN- You know...yeah, it works. Initially there was no script. Um...I got 3 pages of sides. I was so hesitant. And my manager said, listen...just look at the director, look at the location and call me. It was J.J. Abrams in Hawaii. And I immediately picked up the phone and went, please get me in a room with him. And, you know, a network situation is a brutal brutal brutal process to get into...

 

CARSON- Tell me about it pal (audience laughs)

 

IAN- (laughing) Yes...as you know.

 

CARSON- Even at 2 AM it's not exactly easy.

 

IAN- Exactly. No, I know...I know. And that was it.

 

CARSON-    And you got the gig.

 

IAN- We got there, yeah, and you read the script and you get the script and it says "Confidential" across it. And every page across it says "Confidential - Do Not Distribute" because you couldn't get scripts. I didn't read a script until, I think, right before I signed the deal like you couldn't do it.

 

CARSON- And what's going on...because everybody wants to know what this thing is that's on the island?

 

IAN- I don't know. They don't tell us.

 

CARSON- You, as actors, you guys don't even know?

 

IAN- They don't tell us.

 

CARSON- What if they know...what if the creators of the show have any idea?

 

IAN- I think they do but they're not going to tell us because they know we're actors and I'm going to talk to people like you.

 

CARSON- Yeah, exactly. Very wise people at ABC. Let's go and take a look at Ian in action from the hit show LOST ...

 

IAN- Oh no.

 

(They air the clip where Boone tells Shannon she is "useless." The audience applauds)

 

CARSON- There you go!

 

IAN- She tends to be pretty useless at times.

 

CARSON- Yeah, that's nice. And you shoot in Hawaii?

 

IAN- I live there.

 

CARSON- What a good gig for you, man.

 

IAN- I know.

 

CARSON- You get to be on this hot show, you live in Hawaii...come back to LA. You're probably, you know, banging every hot chick in Hollywood. You're like Magnum PI. What a gig that is!

 

IAN- (laughing) You know I just got certified with his (Tom Selleck's) old dive instructor and there are photos of Magnum PI in those little shorts all over the dive shop and all over the town with the "big thing" and the dive instructor actually wears them. I'm sitting in the room with him for hours and hours and hours...

 

CARSON- I hope you're not sitting across from him...

 

IAN- (laughing) He had underwear on.

 

CARSON- Yeah, thank God. That's good.

 

IAN- No, you know what...seriously, it is...

 

CARSON- (interrupting) So you live in Hawaii, you're diving...

 

IAN- It..I can't even begin to tell you....

 

CARSON- Where are you from originally ?

 

IAN- Louisiana.

 

CARSON- Like a small town?

 

IAN- Yeah, not a big town. Right north of New Orleans. But it's across the lake and you grow up in water. And I'm a water boy. And I can't imagine that now I'm on this show around the most incredible people on the planet, our cast, living in Hawaii, I mean.

 

CARSON- Perfect!

 

IAN- I swim with sea turtles and sharks on my lunch break.

 

CARSON- That's not a bad life.

 

IAN- No. It's great.

 

CARSON- I drink Jaegermeister alone all night... (audience laughs)

 

IAN - (peering into Carson's cup)

 

CARSON- Yes, check it.

 

IAN-  Wow! (laughs)

 

CARSON- Umm...I'm thinking about what I'm going to do later. Well, I know...I'll drink Jaegermeister. So...and you were a model before....obviously?

 

IAN- I was....obviously?

 

CARSON- Well, you're a good  looking guy. No, I'm saying it's a compliment...

 

IAN- Oh, cool.

 

CARSON- And the modeling...I live here in New York and I see a lot...you lived here when you were 16 or 17, right?

 

IAN- Yeah, I moved. Actually I started modeling when I was 10. My mother, thank goodness for her, she spent every dollar she had to get us an apartment here for 3 years so I could come here to work and stuff. I came back at 16, yes, alone...and between here and Europe just traveling...

 

CARSON- And what is that like for you, a good looking kid, you're like 17 years old...you live in New York? 

 

IAN- Crazy.

 

CARSON- And what do you do? You're just like, what...smoking weed, hitting...

 

IAN- And running around. You wouldn't believe how accessible New York City is, by the way this is 10 years ago, but how accessible New York City is at 16 and especially like Milan, Paris, London, Hamburg....all those places where these models hang out. Those cities, it was...I don't know, it was a weird, crazy, Dionysian period which was a blast.

 

CARSON- Right. Do you have a girlfriend now? 

 

IAN- I don't. I'm not going to.

 

CARSON- Oh, you should keep it that way!

 

IAN- Sure. Absolutely (extends hand to shake Carson's)...you are a smart man.

 

CARSON- No, seriously...

 

IAN- I know...I'm saying...

 

CARSON- (interrupting) I'm thinking about this.

 

IAN- I spend an inordinate amount of time...

 

CARSON- (interrupting) Because your life so far sounds like from Louisiana to New York and the modeling in Milan and now Hawaii and this hot show...I mean, things are great right now. You don't want to be tied down.

 

IAN- They're so good that it's...

 

CARSON- (interrupting) Do you go out with a lot of chicks?

 

IAN- Umm...no. I try not to.

 

CARSON- Seriously...I just want to know. We could be off the air...we could go to a commercial if you want...I want to know what it's like.

 

IAN- Umm...

 

CARSON- What's it like when you go home to small town Louisiana?

 

IAN- That's cool...because I come from a really cool town where the girls are just beautiful...oh, they were so beautiful...

 

CARSON- Right. You've had sex with every one of them by now (audience laughs)

 

IAN- (looks embarrassed) Umm...but they're all married now.

 

CARSON- You had the opportunity to say...ah, no that's not true...you don't even go home anymore because there's nothing left to...

 

IAN- They're all married.

 

CARSON- Oh, they are...yeah.

 

IAN- They're all married...but they still flirt and that's a weird place to be.

 

CARSON- But you're like this big star too when you come back, so...

 

IAN- Well, I mean...I didn't...I'm not black and blue.

 

CARSON- That's great, man. Just milk it for all it's worth. Just enjoy these times. Well, congratulations, man...the show's awesome... (they shake hands) continued success...it was great to meet you.

 

IAN- You too.

 

CARSON- Ian Somerhalder from LOST everybody ! Wednesdays, 8 o'clock on ABC.

 

(audience applauds)