Howard Stern

Howard is kind of like a Mike Tyson... once upon a time so unbelievably dominant he transcended his medium and became a cultural phenomenon, and also kinda like Tyson, was defeated by becoming fat, not taking his opponents seriously and becoming distracted by things outside his profession. If Tyson didn't hook up with Don King, didn't spend his best years in prison and trained each bout to decimate his foes, he'd be in a whole tier BEYOND even Muhammad Ali.

The problem, is Howard became SO good, he was beholden to no one, and his instincts had gotten him this far, left to them... he plotted his own demise.

People point to Artie leaving, AGT, Eric The Actor dying as all these events that signify the downfall of the show. But it's a little more subtle than that.

Howard is the bottom line on his show, Howard routinely doesn't like elements of his show, and when pressed to address them will make a decision that ultimately hurts the show.

Easy example. The Block Parties. Insane drama between Ronnie and Scott and Shuli, wanting to look at the books. Didn't affect with ANYONE's ability to perform on the show, the fans fucking craved having some interaction with the show which Howard doesn't provide, everyone, EVERYONE was winning. It provided great stories on the air about JD getting laid, Scott fucking up, pranking Ronnie... just tons of content. Howard's issue? Someone is profiting off his name that he doesn't control.

And... it IS a valid point. Ultimately they can't use their names, become "stars of sirius" and the last few events they can't even mention on the show. It fades away and we lose this whole wellspring of content.

You see this logic applied several times.

Don't use my name to promote stuff "block parties are gone"

Benji is late can't be in studio "we lose Benji's voice and insight and antics"

Robin might die "explore what a show without Robin would look like (long form interview)"

It should be saved for MY show "we lose wrap up show creating drama"

I want an organized office "we get Marci Turk"

There are other more demure stuff... like, I'm sure part of Marci's job was just exploring legal liability of things, and we lose interns, we lose crazier naked stunts, we have less interaction with the wack pack.

Not replacing Artie, I think was more of a 'leave the chair open in case Artie comes back' it took about a year before Artie was mentioned as 'former staffer' on the web page. Once or twice they did have a comedian try out the chair, but it never went anywhere.

I think AGT was an earnest effort. Howard did love riffing on reality TV shows, and they aren't as popular as they used to be, but for a LONG time American Idol was all anyone fucking talked about. And his riffing on it was good. When he got AGT they acquiesced to all his demands (move to NY, specific hours, etc.) and he was good at it. I think you can draw a line to a more "family friendly image" but I personally don't buy it.

I think the move to Sirius made sense. Howard was making $20 million a year at KROK and Sirius was the payday he deserved. it's unfortunate he started the same year podcasts launched on iTunes, and now he's locked into some weird pseudo streaming service that's a fraction of his audience previously. It's hurt his ability to be as controversial (when he had 80 million people listening on terrestrial radio, he could say whatever the fuck he wanted and STILL get A-list guests). It does allow him to do a live unedited show though. And no one can really offer that... a theoretically two hour commercial free interview with an A-list star is still a draw. They just haven't been able to capitalize on that.

Beth is sorta like Sirius. If everyone's cool with it, he's allowed to have a hot younger model wife that's kinda the hollywood trope. But not having kids and someone with freetime to figure out how to spend his money, he's got homes with bowling alleys and a $90 million dollar mansion in Florida. And endless talk about fostering sick kittens. With Allison, he was raising three kids, talking about not getting laid. Way more relatable. Again... like Sirius... not his fault for going that route, but it does make him unrelatable. Though I personally would think it cool if he was candid about being hella wealthy. I'd like to hear his thoughts on why he wanted a bowling alley and what it's like to maintain it. I think that would make for interesting content.

In summary, if Howard is forced to make an executive decision, it WILL make sense, but it's going to harm the show in the long run. Beth, AGT, Sirius were understandable moves at the time, but in the long run evolved his show into a more alienating manner.