KIELBASA QUEEN, COME ON DOWN: I don't watch America's Got Talent, and haven't listened to Howard Stern since I was in high school and WYSP played rock music, but, yeah,
putting the two together for $15M/year would at least get me interested in reading the recaps and hunting down clips online.
This seems to me just a terrible idea for several reasons:
ReplyDelete1. America's Got Talent is successful largely because it's largely toothless. Yes, you had Piers Morgan trying to be Simon Cowell, but the biggest "Got Talent" clip of all time is Susan Boyle, which is inspirational-oriented. Stern doesn't do inspirational. Either Stern has to not be Stern, or the show is going to become about him.
2. Stern's an incredibly polarizing figure, and the "hate him" audience seems to me to be exactly the sort of folks who are watching "Got Talent" already, and may well be driven from the franchise if it he shows up.
3. The "talent show" formula is showing cracks at this point--even though The Voice and X Factor have done OK, they haven't been breakout hits, and "Talent" has never been tested outside the summer. (You have to assume that if they get Stern and spend all the money, they'll hold it for the fall.) Do you really want to spend tons of money on that sort of risk?
4. NBC has to think about its image--CBS has one (Older-skewing, police-procedural heavy), FOX has one (edgy, young, hip), and ABC has at least tried to have one (female-skewing, emotion-driven). At least in the past, NBC's image has been driven by airing quality stuff and affluent stuff. Stern doesn't exactly cry out for either.
He knows the women have to wear shirts at all times,right. Radio nudity, i do not understand.
ReplyDeleteTo your 2nd point, he sends his staff out to ask people on the street who's worse between him and some current awful person or trend in the news. Even up against Gadaffi (which I can't spell), bin Laden, bedbugs, and the like, there are some who pick him as worse. Over bin Laden. In NYC. So yes, there are people who will lose their minds, should this come to pass.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, he is so ridonculously INTO these kinds of shows -- genuine (if, to me, totally baffling) enthusiasm. He talks about them ALL THE TIME on air. So though he knows he'd be polarizing (Meghan -- those bits with the man on the street choosing anything/anyone over him are hilare!), he really has fanboy enthusiasm for doing it. Probably won't happen, but funny to think about.
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