Howard Stern to Return for Another Season of America's Got Talent

It's that time of the year again - not just the upcoming holiday season, but the time when Howard Stern, in an attempt to create filler for his radio show, keeps dozens of fans in limbo as he ponders whether he will return for another season as a judge on America's Got Talent.  Today was the special day when he continued his sellout and announced, to the surprise of no one, that he would return to judge another season of AGT.

Last month, a caller other than Bobo, Mariann from Brooklyn or the usual cast of characters somehow made it on the air and asked Howard how much the AGT ratings had gone up since he had joined the show.  Howard claimed to not know any specifics about the ratings, but recited the usual mantra that AGT was the #1 show of the summer (without mentioning that it competes against junk summer filler) and that because AGT wanted him back, things must be good.  This is a stark contrast to the days when Stern would gloat about his appearances on late night TV shows and along with his self-glossed "TV expert" Jon Hein, would recite specific details about how the 'power of Stern' affected ratings.

Here's a little help for the aging Mr. Stern regarding the change in AGT ratings since he joined:

 
Back in December 2011, the air was thick (beer can thick?) with excitement after NBC signed Howard to judge AGT. 

Executives must have had dreams of amazing levels of success which would occur once Howard's millions of fans tuned in to boost the show's ratings.  The network crowed about signing the "King of All Media" to judge the awesome acts competing for a grand prize of $1 million (paid over a period of 40 years); by the way, lest anyone more relevant than Stern try to use the KOAM nickname, a lawsuit would likely ensue, as Howard has trademarked the term King of All Media.

In 2012, NBC moved the final tapings of the show to the New York area (to accommodate Howard's grueling satellite radio schedule) and even made the bold move to premiere AGT in May, a ratings sweeps month, to go up against first-run TV shows instead of AGT's usual competition of reruns and other summer drivel.

Jon Leiberman, one of Howard's shill employees on his news/propaganda team, confidently predicted that Howard's debut would generate over 16 million viewers:

Needless to say, Mr. Leiberman's prediction fell short, as the actual number of viewers was 10.48 million.

Reality quickly sunk in, as the "Stern effect" did not generate an increase in ratings and AGT failed against real competition.  In 2013, AGT moved back to its usual summer premiere date, and ratings continued to lag well below what they were before Howard joined the show, even as AGT brought in new judges Heidi Klum and Mel B.  Now, in 2014, the show plunged to new lows, and episodes which have ratings below 2.0 are not unusual, including a series low 1.8 for a non-recap episode.

Here's another graph of the 18-49 ratings over the years (for the fourth live performance show) from 2008 through the Stern era of AGT:




Apparently Howard has moved the needle for AGT ratings, but not in the direction that NBC wanted when it signed him back in 2011.  AGT seems like the kind of show that kids and older folks (i.e. not the target 18-49 demo that advertisers want) will watch - one could probably replace the current judges with a collection of has-beens from 1980's sitcoms and the ratings would not change very much.

One person who benefits from Howard continuing to embarrass himself on AGT is his wife Beth - one has to wonder whether her appearances on Extra (an NBC Universal show) are possibly due to Howard's service as an AGT judge, plus she will get her mug on screen as much as possible during any live tapings near the end of the AGT season.

At least Howard has that going for him, plus all the fun he'll have filming AGT: