Howard Stern’s appearance on “The View” yesterday went a long way toward extinguishing any flames of controversy he would have ignited back in his take-no-prisoners heyday.
So what gives?
Stern, who was on ABC’s daytime gabfest to talk, yet again, about his new role as a judge on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” shortly after discussing the same thing on the “Today” show, was civil, tame and, yes, respectful toward his female hosts — even evading a question about his sex life.
WTF?
It wasn’t even Stern, but spunky, 82-year-old “View” den mother Barbara Walters, who tried to trigger something — anything — from Howard by jumping onto his lap and giving him a peck on the cheek — then later asking him, “Do you have a lot of sex in your own life”? (“I have sex in my own life. I’m married, and I have a great marriage, and I adore my wife,” Stern responded tamely.)
Stern was having none of it. He was on his best behavior, and save for claiming to have “the most successful radio show in history” — a boast that rang hollow, not because it’s false, but because Howard seemed to be chest-thumping by rote — he played it straight down the middle.
This wasn’t your father’s Howard Stern. Heck, it wasn’t even my Howard Stern. Not even close.
Obviously, no one expects this media-savvy radio pro — who’s out promoting a big, expensive network show — to go on daytime TV and insult everyone in sight, or do his best King Leer (the closest he came to that were a few wolfish comments to Elisabeth Hasselbeck).
After all, Stern is 58 years old now, is the father of three grown daughters and is on his second marriage. The sophomoric stuff only goes only so far, and then it’s just middle-aged-creepy. And that shopworn “shock jock” label affixed to Stern in the ’80s? That reached its sell-by date during the first Clinton Administration. Get over it already.
For the most part, Stern has flown under the radar since moving “The Howard Stern Show” to satellite radio (Sirius XM) in 2006 — doing his (uncensored) thing and keeping his fans happy, but avoiding the headlines while quietly minting a fortune.
It makes you wonder, though, if it’s his lower profile that’s driving Stern to take this late-career tack toward “safer” waters — even holding a post-“View” press conference yesterday at the fusty Friars Club, of all places.
Maybe, after six years of lying relatively low (for him), the siren call of national attention was just too hard for Stern to resist. As he himself joked yesterday, he thought NBC execs were exhibiting “irresponsible behavior” when they approached him about joining “America’s Got Talent” (“Even I was shocked,” he said). But he also referred to his “narcissism.”
’Nuf said.
And, let’s face it, as successful as Stern has been throughout his 35-plus-year career, prime-time television is one piece of the pop-culture landscape upon which the self-proclaimed “King of All Media” has, thus far, been unable to stake his claim. That will change this Monday night, when he debuts on “America’s Got Talent.” Stern certainly doesn’t need the money, not with an annual radio salary estimated at $76 million. But money, as the old saying goes, isn’t everything, especially when you’ve got a healthy ego to feed and you’re accustomed to being a lightning rod — in this case one that perhaps was short-circuited for too long.
It’s been a while since Stern generated any kind of watercooler buzz — but his upcoming stint on “AGT” only reinforces how he’s morphed from dangerous to predictable.
And that’s just too bad.