from: Entertainment Weekly
May 21, 1999
To paraphrase that timeworn saw about British weather, if you don't like what you're seeing on The Howard Stern Radio Show these days, just wait a couple of minutes. After undergoing a drastic revamping over the winter, a new and vastly improved Radio Show debuted on March 20. Dispensing with the single-topic format it had often relied on since its August 1998 debut, the reincarnation offers behind-the-scenes snippets, a rapid-fire barrage of celebrity interviews, and more debauched segments showcasing Stern's "Wack Pack": Crackhead Bob, Gary the Retard, High-Pitched Eric, and Hank the Drunken Dwarf.
Though the show scored its share of home runs in its original format (like last winter's come-one, come-all small-penis contest, and a hilarious-pathetic Queen for a Day takeoff), Radio Show generally seemed nothing more than a lazy transplant of Stern's E! show, which is itself a videotaped grab bag of highlights from his syndicated radio show.
In answer to those viewers clamoring for a "real" late-night show, complete with skits, musical acts, etc., Stern issued a "take it or leave it" edict, claiming he had neither the time nor the inclination for such an undertaking. But for a man who hates failure almost as much as he hates Rosie O'Donnell, he apparently knew something had to be done. (The media-allergic Stern declined EW's request for an interview.)
To effect the transformation, original producer Jim Biederman was replaced by Scott Einziger, executive producer of the E! gabfest. Taking advantage of the humorless passages that plague (and all too often dominate) its sketch-driven competition--NBC warhorse Saturday Night Live and Fox's insurgent Mad TV--Einziger ingeniously uses a multitude of bite-size comic chestnuts to beat them at their own short-attention-spanned game.
For example, those who tuned in April 24 were treated to 20-plus frenetic vignettes in the space of one hour. The video vaudeville careened from a testimonial by Luke Perry about his masturbation habits, to a one-eyed-dwarf rap act named Bushwick Bill, to a squirming Conan O'Brien being grilled about ex-girlfriend Lisa Kudrow's bedroom performance, to a woman demonstrating her ability to walk on her butt, to another who hears voices in her head telling her that Howard is God, to Stephen Baldwin bad-mouthing fellow actor Nicolas Cage (The Usual Suspects "is better than all of [his] movies combined"), topped of with a "Hero of the Stupid" segment wherein Stuttering John quizzed a frazzled Nathan Lane. Take that, psycho cheerleaders.
The retooling came none too soon for the profitable but critically lambasted series. Currently airing on 12 of 14 CBS-owned-and-operated stations, and 69 outlets nationwide, Radio Show may finish third overall against SNL and Mad, but it's more than held its own with those desirable male viewers. During February sweeps, it placed either first or second among males 18 to 34 in 35 of its 50 markets (in most cases going head-to-head with SNL and Mad), and No. 1 in that demo in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Minneapolis.
While Stern may still have a way to go before he's crowned Mr. Saturday Night, at least now he's got a vehicle that will actually turn some heads, as well as the occasional stomach.
from: Entertainment Weekly
April 13, 1999
from: The NY Post
April 19, 1999
HOW low can Stern go? REAL low, according to the ratings.
Howard scored his lowest number yet - a measly 1.0! - for his sleazy Saturday-night TV show on April 3, according to the most recent national syndication ratings from Nielsen.
And the show wasn't even a rerun. It was a brand-new installment of the show Howard said would blow "Saturday Night Live" to kingdom come. What a joke! Howard's never come close to "SNL."
Not even last August, when he scored a 2.7 rating in his debut on 79 stations. Back then, his show was ranked 33rd among all syndicated TV shows. Now his TV show is ranked 107th, right down there with "Bill Nye, The Science Guy." Can you believe it? "Bill Nye, the Science Guy"! - Stern can't even blow HIM to kingdom come!
How big a disaster is Stern's shipwreck of a TV show? That 1.0 rating represents a 63 percent loss in viewership since the show premiered. And those 79 stations have dwindled to 60 - a net loss of 19. Syndicated shows are supposed to add stations, not lose almost a quarter of them.
They're supposed to add viewers too, and advertisers. Stern's not adding any of them either. What's it all mean? "The Howard Stern Radio Show" is a goner.
You heard it here first.
Is Howard pandering to the television audience of The Howard Stern Radio Show at the expense of his radio audience?
RadioDigest.com had a big feature story about Howard on March 23 and 24, 1999. Access those stories from here.
from the: NY Post
March 18, 1999
Howard Stern's struggling TV show, which recently got a new executive producer, debuts the first phase of a major revamp this Saturday night.
"It's a whole new, faster-paced format," said Stern on his radio show (K-Rock/92.3 FM) about the CBS program he vowed would turn the competition into "Saturday Night Dead."
It hasn't.
"This week, we'll have Dennis Rodman's crying press conference, [comedian] Pat Cooper going berserk, Gary the Retard's lap dance at Scores, girls too hot to walk down the street and Joe Frasier falling down backstage," promised Stern.
"You'll also see 'When O.J. attacks,' Benjie wrestling in his underwear, Stuttering John's interviews, a Babbabooey animation, midget-tossing and a dirty Jokeman cartoon."
This marks a major change in the structure of Stern's syndicated Saturday night TV show, which lost about a dozen affiliates since its launch late last summer because of raunchy content and so-so ratings.
Two weeks ago, Stern quietly replaced the TV show's original executive producer, Jim Biederman, with Scott Einziger, who produces the Stern show that airs the other six nights of the week on cable's E! channel.
The new TV format may remind many Stern fans of the original, multi-segment show broadcast on WWOR-TV (Ch.9) almost 10 years ago. [Ed. - The WWOR show actually started in July 1990.]
While the program drew respectable ratings and topped 'SNL' in New York, the station reportedly had a hard time attracting advertisers.
Its current incarnation hasn't been the easiest of sells for WCBS-TV (Ch.2) either. Last weekend's show contained a number of unsold commercial positions occupied by promotions for 'Hollywood Squares' on Ch.2.
The broadcast featured a variation of the radio show's 'Strip Homeless Game' in which Stern and his sidekicks tried to guess which aspiring Playboy playmates would answer extremely basic civics questions like, "Who was George Bush?"
Many failed.
For years Howard Stern has given America the most outrageous radio anyone could possibly imagine. He's shocked his listeners on a daily basis, digging deep down into his twisted soul and finding what everyone in America was looking for: dick jokes, lesbians, the socially retarded, homeless, fart humor, naked chicks, spanking, daily beratement of his staff, oh, and let's not forget lesbians! In 1994 he did something so simple, yet so ingenious. He brought his radio show to television.
People listen to Howard on the radio constantly wondering if what he's saying is really true. Did that girl really take her top off? Did those two girls really kiss? Are Gary's teeth really that big? Thanks to E! Entertainment Television, people could now see that Howard was telling the truth, Gary's teeth really are that big. His show struck a chord with his audience; his ratings on E! were the highest the cable network had ever seen. But many don't even get that channel on their cable systems. For a while, even Howard couldn't get E! on his native Long Island.
The one thing I will tell you is, every move that Howard Stern makes is a carefully thought-out strategic plan. He has never once made a rash career move, and that is thanks to his pitbull of an agent, Don Buchwald. Case in point: the movie version of "Private Parts." Howard could have easily jumped on the offers that were flowing in once his books went bestseller, or when he cornered the radio ratings market. But no, he and Don waited. They took in all offers. They sorted through all the bad scripts and slimy industry people until they got the right director, producer and screenwriter. This took years, but the wait was worth it.
There is one thing Howard has yet to conquer, and that is network TV. On radio, he has pushed the limits to the end, but network television is a lot more conservative than radio. In 1990 he brought America "The Howard Stern Show," a sketch-comedy program which was syndicated on Channel 9 (WWOR). He reached new heights. His show was so popular it regularly beat "Saturday Night Live" here in New York. But the strain of the programming executives constantly coming down on him, regardless of his ratings, drove him to give up his Channel 9 show. He learned that he could not just throw his brand of humor in the lap of American TV without fighting tooth and nail. He discovered that he had an uphill battle to fight. He needed some forum that was small enough to let him develop his special brand of humor without executives getting under his skin, and where the government would leave him alone. Howard and Don took their time, and in two years they found the perfect home, E! Entertainment Television. E! was so small when Howard started out that they where happy to get the attention that only Howard could bring to the network, and it cost practically nothing. They didn't need to build a studio; all they had to do was put a couple of robotic cameras in his radio studio and boom, they had a instant hit.
Four years later, Howard's longtime supporter and boss Mel Karmazin is now the head of CBS television. The time is right for Howard to conquer network TV. Once again, the waiting has paid off. Howard announced in the spring of 1998 that he would be going directly up against "Saturday Night Live" in the 11:30pm time slot on CBS, something that he has been dreaming about for the past eight years. Now people are talking. They are all wondering what he is going to do next. People were waiting to be shocked and excited. To many people's dismay, all they got was an hour-long version of his E! show. The ratings were low, and he didn't beat "Saturday Night Live." People felt they were being cheated.
Well, people are stupid. I don't know if anyone realizes what Howard has been doing. He has been developing his radio program into a TV show for the past four years. There isn't anyone out there who does a better interview than Howard Stern. There isn't anyone out there who can bring you the kind of creativity that he and his staff generate on a daily basis. There isn't anyone who cares more about entertaining their audience than he does. Sure it seems like you're being cheated because his show on CBS is the same as it is on E! But do not give up on him! Everything that Howard has ever done has always evolved into greatness. Take a look at his first Channel 9 show. It was disorganized and unpolished, but by the end it had everyone's attention. If you take a look at the first E! show you would not believe how different it was to what is going on now. Howard Stern is a man who is never satisfied. He will always strive for greatness, and he will always strive to be number one. Right now his CBS show is in its beginning stages. Like Channel 9 and E!, in two years this show will be nothing like what you see now. It will continue to evolve until he finds out what works best. One of the best things about being a Howard Stern fan is watching his show grow. People who have been turning him off thinking that they were being cheated will all come crawling back with their tails between their legs. I say don't be one of those people. Right now television history is being made every Saturday night at 11:30. Do yourself a favor and tune in. Watch how the show evolves and be a part of history. Plus, he has really hot chicks on too.
All material © Steppin' Out Magazine 1999
Ratings for The Howard Stern Radio Show:
The first 52 weeks of HSRS Overnight Ratings History. As posted (or not) by the "Ultimate TV News" site. 8/22/98 Premiere: 4.9/12 (SNL was a rerun) 8/29/98 Week Two: 3.9/10 "32 markets"- UTN (SNL was a rerun) 9/5/98 Week Three: 3.0/8 "28 markets"- UTN (SNL was a rerun) 9/12/98 Week Four: 3.4/9 (SNL was a rerun) 9/19/98 Week Five: 2.7/7 (SNL was a rerun) 9/26/98 Week Six: 2.7/6 10/3/98 Week Seven: 2.9/7 10/10/98 Week Eight: 3.5/9 (SNL was a rerun) 10/17/98 Week Nine: 2.9/7 10/24/98 Week Ten: 2.3/6 10/31/98 Week Eleven: 3.7/10 (SNL was a rerun) 11/7/98 Week Twelve: 3.0/8 11/14/98 Week Thirteen: 3.3/9 11/21/98 Week Fourteen: 4.0/11 11/28/98 Week Fifteen: 2.3/7 (SNL and HSRS were reruns) 12/5/98 Week Sixteen: 3.3/8 12/12/98 Week Seventeen: 4.1/10 12/19/98 Week Eighteen: 3.5/9 (SNL was a rerun) 12/26/98 Week Nineteen: 3.8/8 ( SNL, HSRS, and Mad TV were reruns) 1/2/99 Week Twenty: 4.7/11 (SNL, HSRS and Mad TV were reruns) 1/9/99 Week Twenty-one: "No ratings available" for HSRS, no reason given. 1/16/99 Week Twenty-two: 4.0/10 1/23/99 Week Tewnty-three: 3.4/9 (SNL and Mad TV were reruns) 1/30/99 Week Twenty-four: 3.5/9 (SNL was a reun) 2/6/99 Week Twenty-five: 4.1/10 2/13/99 Week Twenty-six: No ratings for HSRS were listed, no reason given. 2/20/99 Week Twenty-seven: No HSRS ratings. Tech. trouble- Phil. Boston, Detroit, Columbus 2/27/99 Week Twenty-eight: No Late Night ratings for any show. 3/6/99 Week Twenty-nine: No HSRS ratings, no reason given. 3/13/99 Week Thirty: 3.5/9 (HSRS on in 26 of 44 metered markets - TV Barn) 3/20/99 Week Thirty-one: No HSRS ratings, no reason given. 3/27/99 Week Thirty-two: No HSRS ratings. (Game delayed broadcast) 4/3/99 Week Thirty-three: 2.6/8 (SNL was a Repeat) 4/10/99 Week Thirty-four: No HSRS ratings. No reason given. 4/17/99 Week Thiry-five: No ratings for any Late Night show. 4/24/99 Week Thirty-six: 3.2/9 (SNL was a repeat) 5/1/99 Week Thirty-seven: 3.5/9 based on 25 Markets (SNL repeat) 5/8/99 Week Thirty-eight: No HSRS ratings 5/15/99 Week Thirty-nine: 3.5/9 5/22/99 Week Forty: 3.3/9 5/29/99 Week Forty-one: 2.9/9 6/5/99 Week Forty-two: 3.0/8 6/12/99 Week Forty-three: No HSRS ratings. 6/19/99 Week Forty-four: 2.7/7 6/26/99 Week Forty-five: No HSRS ratings. 7/3/99 Week Forty-six: 2.3/7 7/10/99 Week Forty-seven: No HSRS ratings. 7/17/99 Week Forty-eight: No HSRS ratings. 7/24/99 Week Forty-nine: 2.9/8 7/31/99 Week Fifty: No overnight ratings for any late night program 8/7/99 Week Fifty-one: No overnight ratings for any late night program 8/14/99 Week Fifty-two: "There were no figures available for Howard Stern at this time."
SNL info from: http://www.saturday-night-live.com/snl/nielsens.html
According to Nielsen: There are an estimated 98 million television households in the US. A single ratings point represents 1%, or 980,000 households. 'Share' is the percentage of television sets in use tuned to a specific program. To learn (a little) more about the Nielsen ratings, see the Washington Post's FAQ: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/tv/permanent/faqnielsen.htm
from: ultimatetv.com
November 29, 1998
In late night, "The Best of Saturday Night Live" featuring Steve Martin sketches was a 6.5/17 (last week "SNL" was hosted by Jennifer Love Hewitt with musical guest Beastie Boys, 7.4/19). On FOX, "MAD TV" came in with a 4.4/9 (4.2/9) and in syndication, "The Howard Stern Radio Show" was a 2.3/7 (4.0/11).
from: Newsday
11/29/98
from: http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/tv/let003.htm
Wheel of Fortune (a 10.6 rating) and Jeopardy! (8.9) are the syndication leaders. Jerry Springer is still the top syndicated talker, at No. 4 season to date, with a 6.9 rating. The rest of the pack: Oprah Winfrey (No. 5 at 6.1), Montel Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael (tied for No. 15, 3.6), Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee (No. 16, 3.5), Rosie O'Donnell (No. 18, 3.4), Jenny Jones (No. 25, 2.9), Maury Povich (No. 28, 2.8), followed by Roseanne, Howard Stern (No. 51, 1.6), then the Osmonds and Mandel.
--snips--
from: The BOSTON GLOBE
Two of TV's most outrageous personalities -- Howard Stern and Roseanne -- are scraping bottom. Their highly anticipated syndicated TV shows reached record lows in the latest ratings released by Nielsen on Wednesday, leading some industry observers to suggest the future of the programs may be in jeopardy.
"The Howard Stern Radio Show" dropped 20 percent from the previous week's ratings and 56 percent from its August premiere. "The Roseanne Show" ratings were down 18 percent from the previous week and 33 percent from its September premiere.
from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Friday, October 23, 1998
KPLR (Channel 11) has dropped "The Howard Stern Radio Show" from its lineup because of continuing concerns over the program's content.
"We were uncomfortable trying to decide on a week by week basis what was or was not suitable to air," the station's general manager, Bill Lanesey, said Thursday. "It finally came down to the question of whether or not this was a show that should be on WB11, and we decided it shouldn't."
In scheduling Stern, "We had expected a show that would push the envelope, but in creative and innovative ways," Lanesey said. "What we got didn't deliver that."
"Howard Stern" aired at 10 p.m. Saturdays for one week in August and was then moved to midnight because of its content. Last week's show was pulled by the station after Lanesey previewed a segment in which Stern shaved a woman's pubic hair.
In addition to Channel 11, three other stations owned by Acme Television (in Portland, Ore., Fort Myers, Fla., and Knoxville, Tenn.) dropped the Stern show this week. The Acme general managers discussed the show in a conference call before the decision was made, Lanesey said.
Acme's president, Doug Gealy, told The Washington Post, "We don't believe in censorship, but we felt that for our viewers in these markets, the show had gone over the line."
A station in Birmingham, Ala., also canceled Stern this week. The program had previously been dropped in San Diego, Phoenix and Lubbock, Texas.
"The Howard Stern Radio Show," so named because it consists of taped, repackaged segments from the shock jock's daily radio program, is distributed by Eyemark, the syndication arm of CBS. It airs on most stations owned and operated by CBS, as well as stations covering more than 70 percent of the country, with a TV-MA rating.
October 22, 1998 - KWBP in Portland, Or., is the latest TV station to drop the Howard Stern Radio Show as offensive. "Managers of television stations have an obligation to determine what's appropriate and what isn't," general manager Steve Dant said.
Howard who?
Howard Stern may be king of radio, but on the tube, his free fall is reaching epic proportions. National ratings for Week 3 of the CBS-syndicated ``Howard Stern Radio Show'' Saturday were down 24 percent from Week 2 - and 41 percent from his Aug. 22 launch.
Even guest Cindy Crawford couldn't rescue the salacious Stern. In Nielsen's top 33 markets, he attracted a measly 8 percent of viewers - just more than half of the percentage for a Dan Aykroyd retrospective on NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
Also for the third week, Fox's "Mad TV" knocked off Stern in the 33-city overnights, with 9 percent of viewers.
Meanwhile, a third station has dumped "Radio Show." A spokeswoman for San Diego's KUSI said Stern was off the air and would be re-evaluated "on a week-to-week basis." Stations in Phoenix and Lubbock, Texas, had already canceled him.
Minus San Diego, Stern is seen on 77 stations, including 12 of the 14 CBS-owned outlets.
From the Saturday, Sept 5, 1998 San Diego Tribune:
By Robert P. Laurence
TELEVISION CRITIC
San Diego's KUSI/Channel 51 yesterday became the nation's third television station to drop "The Howard Stern Radio Show," the gamey late-night Saturday TV program hosted by the syndicated New York shock-jock.
"It's not the show we felt we were going to buy," said Mike McKinnon Jr., KUSI vice president of broadcast operations and programming. "It's just a bad show about nothing.
"We weren't pleased with the content at all. We weren't proud to have it on our station."
Stern's television show, aired by CBS on network-owned stations and syndicated to independent stations such as KUSI, has aired twice so far, and has already been dropped by KJTV in Lubock, Texas, and KTVK in Phoenix.
Tonight at 11, Stern's spot on the schedule will be filled by a rerun of "The Jerry Springer Show," the controversial talk show in which guests often end up in fights.
Segments in the Stern show over the past two weeks have included the "frankenstein makeover," in which unattractive women get beauty makeovers and lesbians kissing and exposing their breasts.
After a strong beginning in the ratings the first week, Stern's national ratings sank 22 percent last week, when he finished third, behind "Saturday Night Live" repeats and Fox's "Mad TV."
McKinnon was asked to explain why his station was dropping Stern's show while it continues to carry Springer, not only on Saturdays but twice a day weekdays, including once at 5 p.m., and he responded: "That's a good question, I've asked myself that. All I can say about Jerry is that he's been on the air for eight years, and it's a different type of program. I can't answer that question."
He said he would review the Stern show "from week to week, to see if it improves, but I think it'll be a long day."
Stern could not be reached to comment.
Thanks to the Dallas Morning News and the Associated Press for this report...
Face it, the old adage, "You can knock me down, but you can't knock me out," doesn't fly with Howard Stern. Why? Because no matter what you do, the guy won't lay down -- even for a plit second.
After widespread criticism from both critics and fans about his new late-night Saturday series "The Howard Stern Radio Show," the outspoken personality has refused to admit that maybe, this time, he made a poor choice. What choice was that? To make this new venture an off-shoot of his radio program, like his daily show on E! has been doing for the last few years.
Would that outcry make Stern change his mind at all about how to address the new show? Not on your life. If anything, the second week of Stern's new show featured even less original material than the premiere episode, with one short animated bit, and an introduction to an extremely long bit showing a young man pass gas 400 times during the course of one of Stern's radio broadcasts.
As if the recycled material wasn't enough to make the show feel dated, the first guest of the night was Wesley Snipe. He was on hand to promote his new film "Blade," which opened last weekend, not this one. Of course, Stern didn't ask many questions about the film, instead focusing on who Snipes could beat in a fight, or who he had slept with. Stern did point out that Snipes started his acting career by appearing in Michael Jackson's "Bad" video, and even played a clip for his listeners. But, instead of cutting to the actual video for those in television land, the cameras stayed on the studio while the audio played. It was a moment that Stern could have at least added something to the recycled radio material. Instead, it just showed that he didn't seem to care enough about the new TV audience.
The other bits dealt with a "Dating Game"-type set-up, using a mentally-challenged (or, as Howard would say, "retard") as the bachelor, who eventually picked a mentally-challenged woman as his mate, as well as a continuation of last week's "Frankenstein" make-over. This week, three more girls showed Howard why they thought they needed make-overs, and in true Stern fashion, the two best-looking women received the highest number of votes.
The show ended with an appearance by rocker Rob Zombie and a short interview with a professional dominatrix. Zombie then rocked the house down as the show's credits ran.
As for the show's lone animated bit, it featured a gun-toting Charlton Heston, who killed a few apes (ala the films "Planet of the Apes") while cursing Stern's name. The end of the cartoon showed Heston kneeling in the sand in front of the Statue of...Stern. The introduction to the passing gas portion of the show (which easily accounted for almost half of the episode), featured former "Mad TV" comedian Arte Lange as one of two ESPN-like sportscasters commenting on the "action."
Unfortunately, for Stern Fans and enemies alike, this episodes, like the premiere, really offered nothing new for viewers. Even the amount of nudity and cursing was reduced, although the amount of censoring Eyemark does on the show sanitizes it beyond the lengths that most of Stern's radio station even do.
One of Stern's competitors on the night, "Mad TV," featured a character dressed as Howard Stern opening the show, and eventually being beat up by guest star Halle Berry. The real Stern show wasn't nearly as original, and also got beaten -- but in the ratings this time, both by "Mad TV" and "Saturday Night Live."
"Stern" slipped to third place among the Saturday night scheduled shows, pulling a 3.9 rating / 10 rating in 32 markets (last week, the debut had a 4.9/12 in 31 markets). That slip allowed "Mad TV" to jump ahead, as it drew a 4.1/9 (4.6/10 last week). "Saturday Night Live was the big winner again, as its special Chris Farley tribute show landed a 6.2/16 (last week on "SNL" the best of Eddie Murphy was a 6.4/17). Once again, recycled material on "SNL" easily outdrew recycled Stern material.
So what's the answer for Howard Stern? Well, as he has proven many times in the past, he's pretty much oblivious to most criticism, so the advice should go out to viewers. Until Stern offers something new and interesting to watch, maybe "The Howard Stern Radio Show" should be just that: A radio show.
http://www.UltimateTV.com/news/f/a/98/08/30stern.html
Thanks to the Associated Press and the Dallas Morning News for this report...
If you watched Saturday night's debut of Howard Stern's CBS-TV show and wondered, "How did he get to here?", you weren't alone.
To millions of Americans, Stern is still the guy who talks dirty on the radio in the morning to drooling half-wits.
That's one view.
But there's another.
"People have said for years he's a fad," says Tom Taylor of the radio trade sheet M Street Journal. "Yeah. And blue jeans are a fad."
"He's a franchise," says Steve Kingston, program director of WXRK, the flagship station of Stern's nationally syndicated radio show. "There's no program director in the country who wouldn't want to have him."
"Howard Stern is a giant of 20th-century radio," says Michael Harrison, editor of the trade magazine Talkers. "He's a historic figure."
The two most important sets of numbers in radio — ratings and ad revenue — tend to support these assessments.
They certainly appeal to Stern's long-time champion, Mel Karmazin, who put Stern on New York morning radio in 1986 and now is second in command at CBS Television.
The Karmazin connection, presumably, is a main reason that CBS has taken the extraordinary step of plucking a radio guy to challenge NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and building his show on cherry-picked bits from the radio.
The success of Stern's rival Don Imus on MSNBC notwithstanding, the bridge from radio to TV is long. After the fledgling TV business finished assimilating radio stars like Arthur Godfrey and Jack Benny, few radio personalities acquired the national impact to launch a TV career.
Stern has. And here are six points to keep in mind before writing him off with that worn-out phrase "shock jock."
Well, we're about 2 weeks from the debut of Howard's new tv show, and the press is starting to gear up! For your enjoyment...read it and weep, ManQueer!
from the NY Daily News
8/6/98
Television
By Richard Huff
Daily News Staff Writer
-snip-
from the New York Daily News
Original Publication Date: 08/05/1998
Radio motor-mouth Howard Stern later this month goes into a late-night TV battle with NBC's "Saturday Night Live" armed with a former producer from the "SNL" camp.
Yesterday, Jim Biederman, a former creative executive with Broadway Video, the company owned by "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels, was named executive producer of Stern's new Saturday night series, which will air around the country, and on WCBS/Ch. 2 locally, on Aug. 22.
During his career, Biederman has been the executive producer of CBS' "The Kids in the Hall" and Comedy Central's "The Vacant Lot." He has also produced several "SNL" prime-time specials.
Neither Stern nor Biederman was talking to the media yesterday. Stern will talk about the show during an Aug. 19 on-air press conference.
The hiring of Biederman is the latest step in the evolution of Stern's long-awaited CBS late-nighter. It also has been given a catchy name - "The Howard Stern Radio Show."
Stern's CBS series will mix footage from his daily radio show - heard locally on WXRK (92.3 FM) - along with new comedy bits and animated material developed especially for the new series. The show will also include classic moments from his radio show.
In many ways, say insiders, the CBS show will be similar to Stern's nightly series on cable's E! Entertainment channel, which tapes each day's radiocast using cameras in his studio and edits it down to half-hour episodes.
CBS will air the show on 12 of its owned stations and has sold it to other stations reaching about 70% of the country. CBS chose to sell the show in syndication rather than make it a network-wide program and risk angering conservative affiliates for whom Stern's outlandish humor might well be anathema.
Still, the show will present the folks at "SNL" with perhaps their toughest challenger to date. On a local level, Stern proved to be tough competition for "SNL" a few years ago when he had a much-different syndicated series that was produced out of WWOR/Ch. 9's New Jersey facility. But, while it did well in the Nielsen department here, it didn't set any ratings records out of town.
More important, Stern's former TV series, which was chock-a-block with lesbian kisses, jokes about bodily fluids and an entire episode devoted to breasts, was too hot to handle for major advertisers.
"SNL" producer Michaels was not available for comment. However, in the past, he has said Stern was a worthy competitor and ultimately would be good for the late-night TV business.
"I think he's funny, I'm sure he'll do an interesting show," Michaels told The News in April, when Stern's CBS series was announced. "There's room for both of us. It will bring more folks to late-night."
Conversely, Stern has maintained that "SNL" is no longer funny and was "lazy," "tired" and "old."
"I think he's going to get a lot of sampling," said Marc Berman, associate program director at Seltel, a company that advises stations on program choices. "I think he's going to raise [the number of people watching TV] on Saturday nights."
Berman also said it's not inconceivable Stern could beat "SNL" in some major markets. "There's no reason why he wouldn't," Berman said. "You know exactly what you're going to be getting with Howard Stern. You know what he is."
from the NY Post
Entertainment
8/5/98
The new show - to be called "The Howard Stern Radio Show" - is scheduled to debut Saturday, Aug. 22 on WCBS/Ch.2 (11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.), competing directly with NBC warhorse "Saturday Night Live," which airs at 11:30 p.m. on WNBC/Ch.4.
Originally, Stern's show was slated to air only on 12 CBS-owned stations - but CBS said yesterday that "Radio Show" has been sold to enough stations that it can be seen in more than 70 percent of the country.
That coverage includes affiliates of ABC, Fox, UPN, The WB and independent stations, in addition to the CBS-owned stations.
"Radio Show" will also air in Canada (Edmonton, Calgary, Alberta and Nova Scotia) through CHUM Television.
CBS also named Jim Biederman the show's executive producer.
Biederman is a former executive at Broadway Video, run by Lorne Michaels - whose "SNL" will face its stiffest challenge ever from Stern's latest TV show.
The new Stern series will originate from Stern's K-Rock studios.
Stern's syndicated morning radio show on K-Rock (92.3 FM) reaches millions of listeners, while nearly everything Stern touches - from two best-selling books to movies to pay-per-view "events" - have been extremely successful.
Stern will continue hosting his nightly show on cable's E! Entertainment Television while working on "Radio Show," which will include his K-Rock stablemates Robin Quivers, Fred Norris, Jackie "Too Many Heinekens" Martling, Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate an others.
from the Philadelphia Inquirer
7/21/98
Gail Shister Column
from: Newsday
4/8/98
Marvin Kitman Column
The end of the millennium is upon us, and Howard Stern just got a television show.
Any connection?
Nah. Consider this:
Mr. Stern promises naked ladies, drunken dwarfs, lesbians and foul language on his new TV show, set to start in 12 cities in August at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays (the CBS station in Dallas has passed on the show, but another local station could pick it up in syndication).
But Jerry Springer is already providing most of that and more and getting better ratings than Oprah, while the kids on the animated smash South Park are such hard cases, not even the spawn of Satan can back them down.
For once in his career, Mr. Stern finds himself in the middle of the pack. Raunch has become routine, to the point that even he believes the world has gone "completely wacky."
Anybody remember when diagrams of President Reagan's colon drew protests?
Nowadays, a colon might be used as a storage bin for a satellite dish, as Cartman learned to his
dismay on an early episode of Comedy Central's South Park.
"It's funny that while I'm the person who gets fined, that obviously standards have changed," Mr. Stern said last week at a news conference announcing his TV show. "I mean, it's ironic that all these sex scandals are going on in Washington, and people [are] talking about, you know, graphic stuff. And what is so odd about it is, if I say "fondle the president's penis" on the radio, I will be fined. My kids watch the news; I gotta cover their ears. Network news has all the stuff I do."
And he's right. The Big Three networks don't think twice anymore about sexual frankness:
* Mike Wallace recently said the "P" word [and that doesn't stand for "penis"] on 60 Minutes.
* Network news reports prompted nationwide curiosity about alleged distinguishing marks on the president's genitals.
* Fondled breasts, unfettered genitals and libidinous behavior have become part of the "national dialogue."
* At 7 p.m. Thursdays, the friends on Friends talk about girlfriends becoming lesbians and boobs popping out of dresses.
No one understands Americans' need for sleaze better than Jerry Springer. Over the past three years he has pulled the show's ratings out of the gutter by jumping into it - by combining sex and violence with a nonstop flood of nitwits. Are you in love with your mother's boyfriend? Better yet, have you slept with your mother's girlfriend? Give Jerry a call.
You tune in for the stupidity; you stay for the head slaps.
His guests represent every sexual contortion imaginable and seem to be incapable of stringing
two sentences together without looking to punch someone.
And if seeing him twice a day in Dallas isn't enough, you can now buy the Jerry Springer: Too Hot For TV! video ($34.90 for the Deluxe Edition), which is kind of fun at first but devolves into a mind-numbing display of human sputum featuring naked ladies and frantic fights - which some critics of the show believe are staged. Near the end of the tape, Mr. Springer tries to justify the mesmerizing stupidity.
"Look, television does not and must not create values," he says. "It's merely a picture of all that's out there - the good, the bad, the ugly, a world upon which we then apply our own values, learned and nurtured through family, church and experience. Remember, if we permit only those views which the majority of us hold, then you and I are free only so long as we agree with the majority."
In other words, the daily display of white trash keeps the beacon of democracy shining. It's kind of like the owner of a traveling carnival saying, "They made me have a freak show."
But just because there are people swimming in the Mariana Trench of the gene pool doesn't mean we have to put them on TV.
As for values, let's face it: Thousands of kids are learning more about right and wrong from Andy Griffith and Barney (the deputy and the dinosaur) than they are from their parents.
What's most annoying about Mr. Springer is not so much that he gives these freaks a forum, but that he stands there in his expensive suits looking bemused as a woman gets her hair ripped out, and refuses to admit that he's a freak, too. You can't have your soul and sell it, too.
Mr. Stern, however, eschews galling attempts at justification and plunges in joyously with every nut-ball and sex fiend he can find. He's also funny, a word not often used to describe Mr. Springer.
Mr. Stern says his show "is never about being outrageous for the sake of being outrageous. I've never laughed at Jerry himself; I laugh at Jerry's guests. Can I bring out 80 lesbians to Jerry Springer's three lesbians? I'm not in competition with Jerry Springer; I'm just strictly trying to make people laugh."
Not that this is all necessarily bad. Many nations have come to grips with sex, and their citizens can talk about it without giggling or getting angry. And everyone by now has heard about how silly some countries think it is for us to be so torqued up about our president's sex life.
The notion that the United States might actually be working up the courage to peek into its underwear and admit there's something down there is encouraging.
And many adults now decrying the violence on The Jerry Springer Show grew up screaming in front of their TV sets for one of the Von Erich brothers to rip somebody's head off at the Sportatorium.
No, the world is not coming to an end. But it is getting louder and racier, and parents are going to have to work even harder to help their kids make sense of it all.
And occasionally, they might get help from an unexpected source.
Late last week, officials with the Springer show announced they are cutting back on the onstage violence "to address recent concerns expressed by viewers and stations," the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Confrontations will become more verbal and less physical," the story says. "Guests who insist on punching will be kicked off. And parents will be warned in advisories not to let their children watch the program."
The story ends with an ominous note: "Industry insiders said the absence of the fights probably would have a negative effect on ratings."
What was that about values, Jerry?
"This decision is a slap in the face of the large majority of Americans who are already fed up with the glut of vulgar sex talk, cursing, profanity and incivility on broadcast TV.
"CBS-TV was beginning to position itself as the 'family alternative' to ABC, NBC and Fox. By signing Stern, CBS has broken faith with America's families and with tens-of-millions of other Americans also concerned about the erosion of decency standards on TV.
"There is a much larger potential audience for good TV than for shock and depravity, but producing good TV requires talent and a moral vision. Instead of doing that, the 'Tiffany Network's' present owner, Westinghouse, named Mel Karmazin to head operations -- the man who built a radio empire by befouling the nation's airwaves with Howard Stern's shock, vulgarity, prurience, mean-spiritedness and bigotry.
"This is another instance of the broadcast industry failing to fulfill its public interest obligations. It points up the continuing and growing need for Congressional action to extend the ban on broadcast indecency to midnight and to require the FCC to enforce the law.
"Congress enacted legislation in 1992 to require the FCC to enforce the broadcast indecency law between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight. A Federal court changed the late hour to 10 p.m., but indicated it would have upheld the law had it been properly drafted.
"A national poll conducted in February for Morality in Media by Wirthlin Worldwide found that 59 percent of Americans favor extending the broadcast indecency ban until midnight. Only 28 percent think a rating system and V-Chip are an effective alternative to enforcing the indecency law.
"And that poll," said Peters, "was conducted before CBS announced that radio's leading shock jock would now be pouring his trash into America's home on Saturday evenings, when many parents are not at home and even many younger children are still up watching TV."
Morality in Media, a national, interfaith organization founded in 1962, combats obscenity and indecency in the marketplace and in the media.
Well, yesterday was the big announcement: Howard's coming to Saturday night tv this fall!
"Saturday Night Live" has finally met it's match.
Here's a four-panel cartoon that I'm sure will come true in more than a few households this August! It's an animated .gif, and it will run through the sequence twice. Thanks to Mike Smith and the Las Vegas Sun.
Here's a couple of news stories with the full details:
NEW YORK
Wednesday, April 01,1998 - 11:42 AM ET
(CBS) Howard Stern plans to bring "train-wreck television" to Saturday night television, with "wackos from every walk of life."
The Howard Stern Show, to premiere this summer, will be produced in association with the CBS Television Stations Group. And, at a press conference Wednesday morning to announce his new program, Stern made no bones about the fact that his show will be in direct competition with the long-running Saturday Night Live on NBC.
"Saturday Night Live has ceased being funny," declared Stern, adding, "Hopefully, more people will watch our show than their show."
Stern was asked if he plans to clean up his act for CBS, which is known as "the Tiffany network."
Stern's response: "Tiffany is a stripper's name, so we'll pack the show with strippers and all kinds of stuff."
Plans call for The Howard Stern Show to combine material from his radio show with original content, including animation. Stern's radio team, including Robin Quivers, Stern's sidekick; Fred Norris, Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling, and Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate, will join Stern in the new venture. All were on hand at Wednesday's press conference, as was Jonathan Klein, president of CBS Television Stations and General Manager, WCBS-TV New York.
In addition to this new venture, Stern will continue his daily radio program, as well as his nightly show on cable's E! Entertainment Television (which currently is not scheduled for Saturday nights).
Stern's radio show is syndicated in 47 markets, as well as in Canada. Stern, 44, has used his radio popularity as a springboard to film, books, and television. He has written two bestsellers, Private Parts and Miss America, and starred in the movie adaptation of Private Parts, which premiered in March 1997. He won a Blockbuster Award as favorite newcomer.
CBS-owned television stations that initially will carry the program are New York (WCBS-TV), Los Angeles (KCBS-TV), Chicago (WBBM-TV), Philadelphia (KYW-TV), San Francisco (KPIX-TV), Boston (WBZ-TV), Detroit (WWJ-TV), Minneapolis (WCCO-TV), Miami (WFOR-TV), Denver (KCNC-TV), Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV), and Baltimore (WJZ-TV).
NEW YORK, April 1 -- Howard Stern, a.k.a. "The King of All Media," will host a new Saturday late night television program for the CBS Television Stations, it was announced today at the Sheraton New York by Stern and Jonathan Klein, President, CBS Television Stations and General Manager, CBS 2 New York.
THE HOWARD STERN SHOW, scheduled to premiere Summer 1998, will prove to be a unique alternative for Saturday late night viewers by delivering Stern's own brand of humor and social commentary that audiences across the country have come to expect in his enormously successful radio, publishing, movie, pay-per-view and cable portfolio.
THE HOWARD STERN SHOW, which will be produced in association with the CBS Television Stations Group, will combine the best of the Howard Stern Radio Show with original content developed specifically for the program, including animation. Stern's radio family including Robin Quivers, Stern's sidekick; Fred Norris; Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling; Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate, and others, will join Stern in the new venture.
CBS Owned television stations in New York (WCBS-TV), Los Angeles (KCBS-TV), Chicago (WBBM-TV), Philadelphia (KYW-TV), San Francisco (KPIX-TV), Boston (WBZ-TV), Detroit (WWJ-TV), Minneapolis (WCCO-TV), Miami (WFOR-TV), Denver (KCNC-TV), Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV) and Baltimore (WJZ-TV), representing 30% of the country, have been the first to clear the way for THE HOWARD STERN SHOW.
"We could not be happier about bringing Howard to late night viewers," said Klein. "Across the country, there is a large demographically desirable audience looking for an alternative on Saturday nights, and we know Howard is just the right person to deliver it."
In addition to this new venture, Stern will continue his daily radio program as well as his nightly show on cable's E! Entertainment Television (now scheduled Sunday through Friday).
THE HOWARD STERN SHOW will mark Stern's second foray into late night television. In 1992, he premiered the syndicated "Howard Stern" show, broadcast Saturdays, late night. In New York (on WWOR-TV, Channel 9), Stern defeated the Saturday late night competition ("Saturday Night Live"), ranking Number One in head-to- head competition and averaged an 11.9 rating and 33.7 share among men 18-49. The story was similar in Los Angeles, where the show beat all competition, scoring a 5.8 rating and 34.4 share among men 18-49 at 12:30 AM. (Stern's radio program did not air there at the time.) In Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis and Miami, Stern's television show collected impressive ratings across the board.
In addition, Klein said: "When you combine the millions of listeners drawn to the Howard Stern Radio Show on a daily basis with the fans who have made Howard's books best sellers and his movie, "Private Parts," a box office success, the potential audience for THE HOWARD STERN SHOW is a significant share of Saturday late night television viewers."
Stern's high profile career has spawned an extensive repertoire of multimedia entertainment enterprises. In 1985, he began working at WXRK, 92.3 FM, now a CBS Radio Station. His radio show debuted in the afternoon, quickly moved to morning drive and thrived, enabling Stern to extend his market reach and develop the Howard Stern empire. The Howard Stern Radio Show is currently syndicated in 47 markets, as well as in Canada.
In October 1993, Stern released his autobiography, Private Parts, the first of his two best-selling books. Testament to Stern's huge following, Private Parts was the fastest-selling book in Simon & Schuster publishing history and has sold more than one million copies to date. His second book, Miss America, was also a Top-Ten best seller and the fastest-selling book in publishing history.
In 1994, "Howard Stern" on cable's E! Entertainment Television made its debut and quickly became its highest-rated nightly series. His pay-per-view special, "Miss Howard Stern New Year's Eve Pageant," was the highest-grossing pay-per-view variety special of all time. In March 1997, Stern's movie, "Private Parts," made its overwhelming debut and went on to gross more than 42 million dollars in domestic box office sales. The soundtrack for "Private Parts" set the record for the highest number of sales in its first week of release (even exceeding the "Titanic" soundtrack's debut week).
There's bad news for "Saturday Night Live": Howard Stern and CBS are closer than ever to an announcement about their long-rumored plans to mount an all-out assault on NBC's late-night warhorse.
Sources say talks between the K-Rock shock jock and CBS Stations chief Mel Karmazin are heating up, and that a deal could be signed within the next two weeks, if not sooner. Most industry insiders believe that when the deal is completed, Stern will use his top-rated, nationally syndicated morning radio show to announce the news.
As The Post reported last month, Stern and CBS execs have been discussing a weekly program which would bring Stern's raunchy radio act to the small screen. The series would air Saturday nights at 11:30, directly opposite "SNL."
CBS President Les Moonves told The Post in January that the proposed show would air on CBS-owned stations in major markets like New York and Los Angeles rather than on the entire CBS network. Eyemark Entertainment, the CBS syndication division, would distribute the Stern show to stations in other cities.
Representatives for CBS and Stern declined comment yesterday, but sources inside the network say a deal is closer than ever.
"There's more heat surrounding this than there was 10 days ago," one source said. "We may be moving to a different level of agreement."
Sources differ as to when the show might premiere, with possible start dates ranging from April to June to next fall.
Whenever Stern's TV circus hits the air, "SNL" is sure to feel the heat. Stern's radio show draws millions of listeners every day, his books have been best sellers, and "Private Parts" - a big-screen adaptation of Stern's autobiography - performed well at the box office last year.
One industry insider believes "SNL" is vulnerable.
"With the departure of Norm McDonald as "Weekend Update" anchor, the last indisputably funny thing about the show has disappeared," the source said. However, "SNL" has already survived two years of limited competition from Fox's "Mad TV," which airs Saturdays from 11 p.m. to midnight.
Indeed, "SNL's" ratings have been on a steady upswing: Viewership this season is up a whopping 22 percent over the 1995-96 season, according to Nielsen figures.
How well Stern's show does may also depend on its exact format, which is still not known. Many insiders believe the program will show videotaped clips from Stern's radio show, as cable's E! Entertainment Television now does. Other elements produced exclusively for TV might also be included, sources say.
NY Post Entertainment-2/24/98
Courtesy of: the NY Daily News and Rush & Molloy's Daily Dish column of November 14, 1997
It seems Howard will still be airing daily on E! after all! Here's another blurb, also courtesy of the LA Times, that was in the June 8, 1997, Dallas Morning News. It was a generally long, rambling article about the E! network and how they want to air more original programming, but the relevant Howard portion was:
The Network currently airs about 70 percent original programming, including Talk Soup, The Gossip Show and a version of Howard Stern's nationally syndicated radio show. Those series will continue, while most of the network's nonoriginal programming, such as repeats of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, will be phased out, officials said.
Well, rumors are swirling, since Disney announced their plan to buy the E! Network, that Howard is destined to be cancelled. Maybe, maybe not -- only time will tell. But as of this writing (Feb. 4, 1997), it seems not. Here is an item, courtesy of the LA Times, that appeared in the Feb. 4, 1997 Dallas Morning News Metro section.
So, there you go. It doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but then again, this whole issue was raised because Howard speculated on the possibility. Personally, I doubt he'll be cancelled, but this is more proof that everyone listens to Howard! As usual, check back for any updates.Stern may stay, E! says
The rumors of Howard Stern's imminent demise from E! Entertainment Television because of Disney's financial investment in the cable channel have been greatly exaggerated - at least for the time being.
Even though "shock-jock" Stern last week said on his nationally syndicated radio show that the teaming of the Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. to buy the majority stake in E! Entertainment might mean the end of his risque TV show, executives insist that he may be spared.
"It's early right now to be discussing any changes, but we're not anticipating anything, particularly when it comes to Howard and our Talk Soup show," said Lee Masters, president and chief executive of E!.
"Any rumors or discussions about Howard are not coming from the new partners. This is all premature. Howard is Howard. He creates news. That's why he's so interesting. But no decision has been reached," said Rich Frank, the head of C3, the programming unit of Comcast that will run the new venture. Mr. Stern could not be reached for comment.
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