NBC has signed shock jock Howard Stern to replace Piers Morgan on its summer talent competition series, “America’s Got Talent,” as the network struggles to climb out of the fourth-place ratings hole in which it has been mired for years.
Yes, the network that’s afraid of the word “vodka” — more on that later — has hired the poster child of raunchy language and programming.
More from Lisa de Moraes
Pulitzer Prize winner, Peabody recipient, Medal of Freedom honoree -- Lisa de Moraes is none of these, but she is an authority on the bad direction, over-acting, and muddled plot lines being played out in the TV industry's executive suites.
NBC stepped on its own Golden Globe Awards nominations unveiling Thursday morning when it announced minutes later that it had closed a deal for Stern to serve as the new judge on the country’s top-rated summer series, one of few ratings bright spots on the network’s prime-time landscape.
Production of the show, which has begun auditioning talent for its seventh season, is moving to New York so Stern can continue to do his SiriusXM radio program. But don’t expect “Talent” to remain a summer show for long after this kind of investment. Weeks ago, when word of “Talent” talks with Stern erupted, his camp put his price tag around $15 million; NBC remained mum. After the deal was announced, Stern was filmed scoffing on the street at a TMZ camer-azzi’s suggestion that he was getting $20 million. Within a couple of hours, that number was being reported as fact by some media outlets. Heck, why stop there? Why not $50 million?
The deal marks Stern’s return to the company that famously sacked him more than two decades ago over his raunchy WNBC radio show antics — a fact Stern gleefully noted Thursday on his satellite radio show.
“I will be judging people, and, believe me, my opinion is the one that matters on this show. All the other judges will follow suit. . . . There will be no more nonsense,” Stern said on his radio show about his new gig.
“Believe me, I didn’t do it for the money,” he added. “I did it because I like the show and I need to be a judge.”
For emphasis, Stern’s show also tweeted that he “didn’t do it for the $$$.”
Stern was looking for a new career path. Having failed months ago to close a deal to judge aspiring singers on Fox’s “American Idol,” he will judge contortionists, jugglers, clowns, sword swallowers, ventriloquists — and singers — on “Talent.”
The gig might seem an odd aspiration for the shock jock, but the former self-proclaimed King of All Media’s kingdom got a lot smaller when he migrated from syndication to satellite radio, and Stern stands to gain a lot in recovered visibility in being seen twice weekly on a broad-appeal vehicle.
“Talent” is NBC’s most-watched series, and the most watched show of the summer on any network, clocking 14.3 million viewers on Tuesday nights last summer and 13.3 million on Wednesdays, both series highs for the show.
At the time he was pursuing his dream of replacing Simon Cowell on “Idol,” Stern said in interviews that he wasn’t sure whether what the judges do on “Idol” is “work” and that there’s no cushier job on the planet that judging “a [expletive] karaoke contest.” He also said “Idol” was “in trouble” because the judges were afraid to deliver actual opinions about the performances and “they probably do need me.” At that time, “Idol” was averaging 25 million viewers on performance nights.
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