Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Howard Stern Talks About Meeting Rupert Murdoch To Take Over The Late Show With Joan Rivers in 1986



Howard Stern almost got into bed with mega media mogul Rupert Murdoch. It's not quite what you think! Apparently, Howard Stern nearly took over the time slot previously held by The Late Show With Joan Rivers in 1986. So far as I know this is a new revelation by Howard. As Joan and Howard are presently close friends -- she is a frequent guest -- it will be interesting to know how she takes this information (if she doesn't already know). From Marksfriggin:

(Howard Stern said) he read that Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey broke up. Howard said in April 21, 2009 he said that they wouldn't last. He said he predicted that they would break up in one year last year. He was right.

... Howard said that Jim (Carrey) might start talking out of his ass again now that this break up has happened. He said Jim should have stuck with that kind of character in movies. He said that's what he was great at.

Howard said he has stuck with doing radio for his whole career because that's what he's good at. Howard said he was in Rupert Murdoch's office one time and they were basically sucking his dick to take over Joan Rivers' show to go up against Johnny Carson. Howard said Rupert had this nice office with 4 TV sets on the wall. He said one was playing FOX, the others were ABC, NBC and CBS. Howard said he wasn't monitoring anything but he had them on anyway.

Howard said Rupert asked him what he could do for him and he gave him his philosophy for his career. He said this other Australian guy came in and he had no idea what either of them were saying. Howard said he turned to his agent and said he had no idea what he was saying and Don said he thinks that they liked him and wanted him on FOX. Howard said he was going to go up against Carson and he was ready to do it. He said it was all there for him and all he had to do was sign on the dotted line.

Howard said he thought about it and realized that he's good at doing radio. He said he wasn't sure he wanted to get into TV because they could ruin his whole career if they didn't like his show. Howard said he could stick to radio and keep doing what he does or give that up and go to TV. He said they could have fired him after 13 weeks if they wanted. He didn't want that kind of career. He said it took him a day or two to think about it.

Howard said they would have wanted him to have performed immediately on TV. He said Joan actually had decent ratings by today's standards but they didn't stick with her. He said the TV execs are retarded. He said they're all nuts.

Howard said they brought in a bunch of execs to pick a replacement for him at K-Rock and they picked David Lee Roth. Howard said the guy was the front man for Van Halen and not a radio guy so he wasn't going to be able to perform immediately. Howard said that might be even more difficult than late night TV.


How interesting it might have been had Howard gone the other way. Instead, Howard Stern went small, starting with his short lived WWOR-TV Channel 9 show.

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