Carson Daly's one wish may be for the world to forget his infamous live TV gaffe that continues to haunt him. During a recent conversation with his fellow Today anchors, Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, as well as guest co-host Andy Cohen, the Total Request Live alum confessed to a particularly embarrassing moment during a live broadcast.
"One of my biggest blunders came when I was still new here," Carson recalled during the October 20th episode of the NBC morning show. "I wasn't accustomed to the teleprompter, and I was reading about Leonardo DiCaprio when I blurted out 'Leonardo Di-crap-io.'"
While Carson has largely avoided similar teleprompter mix-ups since joining Today in 2013, he has not forgotten his early mistake. "To this day," he continued, "when I see Leonardo's name on the prompter, my heart starts racing."
However, the Voice host's memorable mishap almost never came to pass, as Leonardo himself recently revealed that he almost changed his name early in his career. "I finally got an agent," the 50-year-old said during an appearance on Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce's New Heights podcast in September. "They said, 'Your name is too ethnic,' and I replied, 'It's Leonardo DiCaprio.' But they insisted, 'No, too ethnic. They're never gonna hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.'"
The proposed pseudonym would have honored the actor's given name, drawing inspiration from his middle name Wilhelm to land on his new last name. However, the nod was far too subtle for Leonardo's father, George DiCaprio, who made it clear where he stood on the matter. As the actor recalled, "My dad saw his photo, ripped it up, and he said, 'Over my dead body.'"
