'America's Got Talent' recap: St. Louis shows its spirit

St. Louis showed its spirit Tuesday night as "America's Got Talent" took in all the talent under the Arch. Apparently the judges liked so much of what marched across the stage in the Gateway to the West (Howard Stern posited that they'd scrubbed the whole city clean of talent, leaving none behind), only a fraction of it could be shown in an hour.

So we were treated to a bevy of people celebrating the fact that they'd snagged a ticket to Las Vegas without seeing more than a second or two of the performances that earned them that privilege. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of a hip-hop violinist that Stern said was the best fiddler he'd ever heard. Then again, a few seconds was quite enough of, just for example, a group of curly-wig-wearing, Irish-step-dancing kids, the youngest member of which capped off the performance with what Howie Mandel noted was an Angelina Jolie leg move. 

Not all the acts were waved through to the Vegas round, of course, though some were offered consolation prizes that seemed to please them nearly as much. A pint-size Ozzy Osbourne impersonator earned a hug from Ozzy's wife, "AGT" judge Sharon Osbourne. "I would die," he said, when offered the opportunity to clinch his hero's spouse.

A guy named Ron Christopher Porter Jr., whose dream is to do movie trailer voice-overs ("I don't see where this would be an act … I don't think you can go onstage with this," Stern wisely intoned) was invited to "hang out" with "AGT" host Nick Cannon. "Really? Oh my god!" Porter said, jumping up and down as if he'd just won the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. Porter was further rewarded with more stage time and a ride in Cannon's limo.

There were other seriously buzzer-worthy acts: a female drummer who'd lost her band, a woman who crushes soda cans with her bare hands ("This chick almost hit me in the face with her cans," quipped Mandel), a guy in a chicken costume, some dude with a lasso and a small plastic bull.

But the ones worth all the judges' fuss? They were …

Isaac Ryan Brown: A beyond-cute 6-year-old boy with personality to burn who sang the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and had what the judges rightly noted was serious "star quality." "As long as it's coming from your heart, that's the only thing that really matters," Brown said of performing, prompting universal "awwws."



Spencer Horsman: The self-dubbed "world's youngest escape artist" (Stern observed that he looked 14, though he's actually 26) managed to wriggle free of a straitjacket while hanging upside down just before a flaming rope keeping a jagged trap from clapping shut on him burned through, spelling his doom. It was dramatic, and he had a sweet onstage demeanor. As long as he's got some good follow-up stunts, this young Houdini could stick around a while.



The Cut Throat Freakshow: This act included a woman named "Candy Pants" who walked and did a handstand on crushed glass, a guy who picked up a chair with his eyelids and a sword swallower – and that's pretty much all the details I could make out through my fingers.



What did you think of the acts that auditioned in St. Louis?

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'America's Got Talent' recap: NYC offers tears and triumphs

— Amy Reiter

Photo: From left, Ron Christopher Porter Jr., Nick Cannon, Curtis Cutts Bey at "America's Got Talent" auditions in St. Louis. Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

'America's Got Talent' recap: Tampa, Fla. auditions not so hot

The judges were hot during the Tampa stop of the "America's Got Talent" auditions Monday night —  Howard Stern complained he was sweating "like a pig" — but apart from a few exceptions, the talent onstage was less so.

After the requisite upbeat urban-youth-saving crew, Inspire the Fire — complete with cheery cardigans and uplifting video intro in which they call the group "a family" — did its singing/dancing thing and made it to Vegas (the judges found it less "corny" than "Glee"), we got some guy wearing a doll in a Baby Bjorn, a self-dubbed "Scissorhands" who did something unclear to a woman's hair, and some other dude who said he was "America's escape hero" but may have been our nation's least-impressive escape artist.

We also got "bikini bombshell" dancers who couldn't dance. Howie Mandel said that, even though he added that although the women were "atrocious" hoofers with "no talent whatsoever," he "still loved" their act. But Stern, to his credit, was unmoved. "My Aunt Sally … at 95, she moved better than you," he said. "At least if your implants had exploded we would have had excitement."

Those acts may have left viewers cold, and a few other promising acts (Hawley Magic and Alesya Gulevich the hula-hoop artist, to name two) were coolly given only a few seconds of air time by producers.

But a handful of performers managed to generate at least some heat:

All That: A burly male clogging group who Mandel hailed for exciting the audience. "When you can bring them to their feet with just your feet, I think you've done something," he told them. Sharon Osbourne even wondered if they could teach her husband, Ozzy, to clog. (Now that could be a million-dollar act.)



The Distinguished Men of Brass: A sharp-suited band of talented fellows who'd lost their jobs and come together to make music and chart a new path, inspiringly. "Thank God for bad times because they brought you guys together," Stern half-joked.



Ulysses: This peculiar-haired, round-bellied, lucky-sweater-wearing guy proved himself to be an able singer of vintage TV theme songs. He treated the audience and the judges to "The Love Boat,"  "Green Acres" and "The Addams Family," failing to win Stern's love but advancing to Vegas thanks to Mandel and Osbourne, who saw the nostalgic entertainment value in Ulysses' peculiar talent. Yes, they were drawn to Ulysses' siren song.



What did you think of the acts on Monday's show?

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— Amy Reiter

Photo: The Distinguished Men of Brass at "America's Got Talent" Tampa, Fla. auditions. Credit: Virginia Sherwood / NBC.

'America's Got Talent' recap: It's Howard Stern's world

"America's Got Talent" may continue to hype the addition of Howard Stern to the judging table as a "Revolution," but the shock jock already has evolved into feeling right at home in his new gig. On Tuesday night's show — the second night featuring auditions in New York, Stern's home turf — the talent show's newest judge ratcheted up his attitude that the stage was his to do with as his pleased.

Before the evening was over, Stern had brought his own dad up onstage to give a "nudnik" contestant a little helpful advice of the sort Papa Stern has apparently long given his son: "Don't be stupid, you moron."



He also titillated his hometown audience with a little sexy dancing.

'America's Got Talent' recap: NYC offers tears and triumphs

It was a night of tears and triumphs that left us all chanting "What you gonna do?" as "America's Got Talent" trimmed itself down to a tidy hourlong slot Monday night.

As auditions rumbled through New York City, the home turf of new judge Howard Stern, we saw basketball-dunking acrobats, futuristically costumed Irish step dancers, a buff-bodied aerialist, a young piano prodigy, and a bunch of bands.

And then there were the memorable acts. Those included …

Mir Money, a 7-year-old rapper from Philadelphia who charmed everyone by admitting he was his favorite rapper and that, were he to win $1 million, he'd use it to take care of his family.

So when Stern and fellow judge Sharon Osbourne buzzed the adorable tyke and he dissolved into tears, well, we might all have been a bit shaken up. ("He's only 7!" my outraged 6-year-old daughter exclaimed.)

Stern hightailed it onto the stage to offer comforting words and a hug. "I'll fix everything. Let me fix everything," he told us. "I'm so sorry," he told the kid. "I don't want to make you cry."



"This job is too rough for me," the shock jock said. "I don't want to do it anymore … I'm not cut out for this."

Stern, that softie, then voted to send the kid to Vegas, but Osbourne and third judge Howie Mandel proved to have thicker skin and a better grasp of the long-term effects. No, they said, explaining that they had no wish to prolong the wee rapper's pain.

Thankfully, there were dancing, twirling, jumping, conga-line-forming, wheel-barrowing, and most remarkably, back-flipping Labradoodles to save the day.



"This is the most amazing, best animal act I have ever seen," Mandel declared.

Then after we saw the judges engage in a little alpha judge posturing about whose stage it was, we were presented another remarkable act: a man whose talent is taking massive hits in his testicles (no cup, because "cups are for cheaters," he explained) and shaking it off with barely a flinch.

"I'm here today to shock the shock jock with what I do," the guy, who calls himself "Horse," boasted.

Turned out, he both shocked and delighted.



"You have come up with an act that I can get behind," Stern said, before crowning him "the king of the nut shot." With three yeses -- "Absolutely amazing!" gushed Osbourne -- the act advanced to Vegas.

Then there was a band, Wordspit the Illest, which somehow combined rap and Phil Collins and violins and a massive leap off the stage into what Mandel dubbed "one of the most glorious moments we have had this season on 'America's Got Talent.'"



And last, but certainly not least, we met 77-year-old Burton Crane, a former amateur boxer and schoolteacher who strutted onstage in his white suit, holding his Casio music machine, and declared himself to be the "grandfather of rap."

"Usually 77-year-old white men are ... the guys who do the best rap," Stern quipped.

But dang if Crane didn't sink a more impressive and unlikely shot than the trampoline basketball crew that kicked off the show: His "What You Gonna Do?" refrain proved to be remarkably catchy. And Crane said he had more than 100 such original songs in his repertoire.



"You found a hook," Mandel told him. "That's a song that's stuck in your head."

As the audience chanted "What You Gonna Do?" he added, "That's what's going on in every living room in America right now."

Mandel was right. What you gonna do?

What did you think of the performances?

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-- Amy Reiter

Photo: Nick Cannon, 7-yer-old Mir Money and Howard Stern, right, in New York on "America's Got Talent." Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC.

'America's Got Talent' recap: San Francisco, land of 'big talent'?

Good thing Nick Cannon isn't afraid of heights. The "America's Got Talent" host ushered in the second night of Season 7 auditions from atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Yep, the "America's Got Talent" audition caravan had rolled -- like some kind of unhinged cable car, with Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel waving wildly out the windows -- into San Francisco.

There, in the home of Rice-a-Roni and (some naked guy with blurred private parts told us at the outset of the show) "huge talent," the focus shifted ever so slightly away from new judge Stern and onto the motley assembly of singers and magicians, animal acts and acrobats, dance crews and dramatically "different" novelty acts, those who are crazy and those who are admirably rising above crazy personal challenges.

In other words, it was more or less back to "America's Got Talent" business as usual. But without heartless Piers Morgan and with bighearted Stern, who already seems like family.

The best auditions of the night included. …

David Garibaldi and His CMYKs: A performance art group that blended graffiti, music, art and dance and -– moving to the music of Beethoven's 5fth -- painted a gigantic portrait of Beethoven, which Stern shamefacedly confessed he'd at first thought was a painting of him. (Actually, it looked a little like Sting, no?) 



Funk Beyond Control: A cute, energetic teen dance group.

Luiz Meneghin: A registered nurse -– born in Brazil, living in Utah -- who has always dreamed of making it in music and who sings opera to his elderly patients. He won over the judges, including Stern (no opera fan), with his tone and emotion.



Dave Burleigh: A comedian who does impressive impressions of stars, including Nicholas Cage, Bruce Willis and Charlie Sheen. Stern urged him to get edgier material, but Osbourne disagreed.

Turf: A formerly homeless 21-year-old street performer with a sweet smile and interesting hair who calls himself an "extreme hiphop contortionist and dancer." He wept when the audience applauded and said, "100%. I've never done anything like this. This right here, dream came true. Thank you." Aw.

Tim Hockenberry: A soulful singer who is a recovering alcoholic with a pretty wife and a new baby.

Jarrett & Raja: An impressive magician/concert pianist act that pulled off a trick in which the pianist played his instrument while he was cut in half.

Michael Nejad: A performer who comes onstage dressed like a custodian, then plays his broom and dustpan like flutes.

And there were more, many more. But I can't leave without telling you about an act so odd it might have been the most memorable. No, not that poor dog who rode a pony, hanging on for dear life.

Of course I'm talking about 80-year-old Paula Nelson, who uses a walker, wears pearls and orthopedic shoes, calls herself "Granny G" and raps about randy youth and family responsibility.

Here she is doing her thing:



And you thought Stern was going to push the boundaries of taste on this show. …

What did you think of this episode?

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-- Amy Reiter

Photo: Howie Mandel in San Francisco. Credit: Virginia Sherwood / NBC

'America's Got Talent': Ratings down for Howard Stern premiere

Maybe America wasn't quite ready for Howard Stern as a judge.

Ratings for Monday's season premiere of "America's Got Talent" plunged compared with last year, according to Nielsen. The first episode with shock-jock Stern — who took over as a judge for Piers Morgan — slipped by one-third, to 10.3-million total viewers in the early data. Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne returned to join Stern at the judges' table.

That doesn't look great, especially after NBC tirelessly promoted Stern's arrival with ads, promos and extensive media interviews.

But in fairness, NBC decided — perhaps unwisely — to open "America's Got Talent" early this year, rather than after the season was officially over. That meant that "AGT" had to slug it out against tough competition, rather than the usual mix of repeats and weak reality shows that it usually has no trouble gliding past. It's likely that "AGT" will build substantially once the summer slowdown occurs.

Still, it's probably not the news that long-suffering NBC — which just unveiled its new fall lineup on Monday — was hoping for.

What did you think of Stern on "AGT"?

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— Scott Collins (twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT)

Photo: Howard Stern (back to camera) confers with fellow judges Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne (partly obscured) on "America's Got Talent." Credit: Virginia Sherwood / NBC.

 

 

'America's Got Talent' recap: Howard Stern makes his debut

"America, are you ready for the revolution?" "America's Got Talent" host Nick Cannon asked, standing on what appeared to be a rocky mountaintop, as the NBC talent show kicked off its seventh season Monday night.

"The show is about to go to a level it has never gone before," Howie Mandel said in the montage that followed, which included a clip of someone taking a hammer to a concrete block on someone else's crotch. 

Oh, "America's Got Talent," you wonder of hyperbole and cheese, you master evoker of the cringe, welcome back!

The "revolution" to which Cannon was referring was presumably the show's extremely well paid, highly controversial (before he even had a chance to do anything) new judge, Howard Stern.

Of course, the self-dubbed King of All Media is no stranger himself to cheesy hyperbole and making America cringe. But it's safe to say a lot of people – fans of "America's Got Talent," fans of Stern, the parenting group that's called for an ad boycott – didn't see how the boundary-pushing radio personality would be suitable for a family-friendly talent show: Would he, metaphorically speaking, take a hammer to "America's Got Talent's" delicate parts, they may have wondered?

I'm guessing the new judge's doubters weren't those people in the audience at the Los Angeles auditions chanting "How-ward, How-ward, How-ward" in the show's season premiere.

I don't remember anyone ever doing that for Piers Morgan.

But then, after only one night with Stern at the judging table, the memories of Morgan as a judge have already grown hazy and faint: pursed lips, nasty quips about Cannon's attire, a quick trigger finger on the buzzer, a toxic relationship with the other judges …

As an "America's Got Talent" judge, Stern, it may not startle you to learn, is nothing like Morgan. It seems we can look forward to him being, at turns, self-effacing and self-promoting, sincere and sassy, surprisingly in command and sometimes downright sentimental. Stern proved himself neither afraid to buzz (he confessed he liked the feeling of power) nor to encourage nor even to climb up onstage and bestow a warm hug to a weepy wannabe. He introduced himself as a man who knows how to assess talent and also what it's like to be told you can't do something and yet persevere. A stern judge and a sympathetic advocate all rolled into one.

Yes, he was funny and a bit bawdy: "Why did Piers Morgan give up this job?" he wondered as a comely female contestant positioned herself onstage. He repeatedly referenced his own "virginity" as a judge. And he commented that "stripper magician" Aoni Jackson's "man boobs" and diminutive package size might not help him realize his dreams. But come on, the guy was a "stripper magician"! For the most part, the shock jock was kind, almost fatherly, and far less shocking than some of the auditioning acts themselves.

But the best part is that all three judges – Stern and returning judges Mandel and Sharon Osborne -- seem to get along famously and to revel in their rapport. When Stern gently teased Mandel about his germ phobia or took a winking poke at Osborne when he advised an attractive, not terribly talented contestant to do as Osborne had and marry a wealthy man (cut to: Ozzy), it had none of Morgan's mean-spiritedness. And when the trio was briefly stuck in an elevator and Stern grew visibly uncomfortable, he gentlemanly ushered Osborne and Mandel's mother off first when the lift finally arrived safely.

OK, the gentleman may have been a little brusque.

"She's 80 years old. You trampled my mother," Mandel griped, amused.

"She's lived long enough. If I die, it's important to the show. Your mother's expendable," Stern quipped.

"My mother lived 80 years and then she met Howard," Mandel giggled.

And what of the talent on Monday's two-hour season premiere, which auditioned talent in Los Angeles and St. Louis?

Los Angeles highlights included William Close, who turned the entire theater into a musical instrument he called an Earth Harp and played it mesmerizingly; the crisply clogging Elements Dance Crew; an acrobatic sport-bike act called All Wheel Sport; the very young aerialist Amazing Elizabeth; rap freestyler Chris La Vrar, who swore he made up his lyrics "100% off the top of my head," though I have my doubts; and the adorable father-daughter singing act Jorge and Alexa, who made Stern express a desire to call his dad up and ask him why he didn't play guitar with him when he was a kid.



Top St. Louis contenders included cross-bow sharpshooter act Ben Black; this season's requisite glow-in-the-dark high-tech dance ensemble, Lightwire Theater; the Loyalty Dance Crew, who worked retail and fast food jobs but loved to dance; a singing waiter calling himself Simply Sergio (it was his rendition of "God Bless America" that brought Stern to the stage for a hug); and another very sweet father-daughter singing duo, street musicians Maurice and Shanice, whose "You've Got a Friend" showed off her beautiful alto. Stern called their act "perfection."



And the lowlights? A kooky lady who lets her cockatiels eat directly from her mouth, who sang … while covered with birds; a circus sideshow performer/stay-at-home dad who pierced his face with long needles (at least that's what it looked like through my fingers); the aforementioned "stripper magician" whose wand (ahem) Stern deemed too small.



"I'm really hopeful," Stern said at the end of Monday's show. "I feel we're on our way."

You know what, Howard? I feel that way, too.

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-- Amy Reiter

Photo: Kotton Kandy with Nick Cannon. Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC.

'America's Got Talent': Fans embrace Howard Stern debut

Howard Stern was tough on some of the contestants on Monday's season premiere of "America's Got Talent." And the viewers seemed to crave it.

"I forgot how much I love Howard Stern," tweeted @OptiMISS_Prime.

"Never was a fan of Howard Stern but gotta say I'm loving him on the show," added @ShammyCW, expressing a point of view widely shared on Twitter.

Stern, the Sirius XM shock jock famed for his naughty ways, replaced Piers Morgan as the third judge on the show, which has for years been among summer's top-rated programs. The other judges are Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel.

Before the premiere, speculation had centered on whether Stern's R-rated sensibility -- porn stars and flatulence are among his favorite obsessions -- would fit with a prime-time broadcast talent show. Based on the initial reaction, viewers seem to think so.

On Monday's show, Stern was sometimes surprisingly warm, at one point climbing onstage to dance with Simply Sergio, a singer whose wobbly audition was redeemed by an impromptu version of "God Bless America." But he was also at times brutal. When one unfortunate contestant reported this his parents had passed away, Stern cracked: "Did they die of embarrassment?"

Not everyone is offering the thumbs-up, of course.

"Reading a pile of positive laudatory reviews of Howard Stern on America's Got Talent tonight," tweeted @mediageek. "Did we see the same show?"

But that was a minority opinion. Many viewers seemed to believe that NBC had succeeded in reinvigorating the show.

"Adding Howard Stern to #AGT seems to have been the best thing @NBC has done this year," tweeted @TheJustinColman.

What did you think of Stern on "AGT"?

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-- Scott Collins
twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT

Photo: Host Nick Cannon, left, with Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel on "America's Got Talent." Credit: Mark Seliger / NBC

Review: Howard Stern's sweet debut on 'America's Got Talent'

There is something sweetly old-fashioned about the phrase "talent show" -- like "quilting bee" or "sack race" or "bake off," it calls up images of small-town fun, of ordinary citizens showing off that extraordinary thing they do. And for all the audiovisual Sturm und Drang of the modern televised variety, it remains humble at its core.

NBC's "America's Got Talent," whose seventh -- seventh! -- season began Monday night, is the purest expression of the form, making room as it does for all manner of performing arts and crafts. The big news in its seventh -- seventh! -- season is the arrival of new judge Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed "king of all media," a claim that may or may not be taken as ironic. (It is not without some factual basis.)

Stern's deserved reputation for vulgarity -- and I intend no criticism -- has led some to worry, sincerely or for practical effect, that his presence would dirty a wholesome brand. The ever- if not over-vigilant Parents Television Council preemptively called for all the show's past advertisers to consider how this unholy alliance would reflect on their products, citing his "decades-long penchant for profanity, his affinity for degrading and sexualizing women.... There can be, and there must be, a presumption that Mr. Stern will only continue to conduct himself in precisely the same manner as he has done for decades."

That is, of course, a foolish presumption, which sells short the show's producers and misreads Stern, who has shown himself perfectly capable of good behavior on other people's turf. On his own shows, he (partially) plays a character named Howard Stern, who lives out the fantasies of the less imposing person he sees in the mirror. (On his first night on "AGT," he managed to impugn both his face and, an old theme with him, his genitals, as well as his relationship with his father.)

He was introduced, nevertheless, in a montage, set to the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," that referred to his reputation. Stern himself played the part, for a minute: "These executives at NBC must be out of their mind taking a risk on me." To the audience: "I say I won't make it through the first show -- what do you think?" But it quickly became evident that, like fellow judges Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel, he meant to play the game the way the game is meant to be played, because, to a deep degree, he believes in it.

Contestants on the opening night, appearing before large and noisy crowds in old, majestic theaters in Los Angeles and St. Louis, included a magician-cum-stripper; a crossbow artist; a man who put a scorpion in his mouth; a ventriloquist whose dummy was a live dog; a little girl on aerial silks; a bad Michael Jackson knockoff; a shirtless saxophonist; the player of a large "earth harp" strung from the stage to the balcony; a woman who sang covered in birds; and the usual dance crews and singers. (One, who called himself Simply Sergio, failed singing "The Girl From Ipanema" but snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by slipping in an operatic "God Bless America" that brought Stern, who had earlier deemed the singer "dreadful," onstage to embrace him.)

Monday's last act, not surprisingly, was the one that best fit the show's rags-to-riches theme, a father-and-daughter team of street performers who brought the crowd, themselves and at least one television critic to tears with a fine reading of "You've Got a Friend."

Some of them will be "going to Vegas" and the next round of competition. Others will fall back on other dreams.

"This is going to sound all sappy," Stern said, giving a thumbs up to one group, whose dance-and-light performance in which they seemed to become dinosaurs and flowers would take too long to accurately describe, "but we are the greatest country in the world; we have the most creative people."

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-- Robert Lloyd

 Photo: Nick Cannon, Sharon Osbourne, Howard Stern and Howie Mandel. Credit: Mark Seliger/NBC.

Howard Stern talks about playing nice on 'America's Got Talent'

Howard Stern isn’t worried about a learning curve when it comes to being a judge on NBC’s hit show “America’s Got Talent.”

“Naked women, singers, jugglers, it’s all the same,” Stern cracked, referring to his time assessing a carnival of guests on his long-running morning radio show.

On the surface, the hiring of radio’s bad boy to replace Piers Morgan as a judge alongside Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel on NBC’s modern-day vaudeville show sounds like a typical television stunt aimed at boosting a sagging show.

But “America’s Got Talent,” which launches its seventh season Monday, is hardly sagging. It is one of the few bright spots on struggling NBC’s prime-time schedule, averaging almost 14 million viewers last summer, according to Nielsen. Furthermore, Stern appears serious about the new post.

“This really fit what I built a career on,” Stern said. “We’ve had people come on the radio show for years that are talented or really odd. We’ve taken weirdos and made them stars.”

Indeed, Stern has always had a fondness for finding people with unusual skills and giving them a platform to either shine or humiliate themselves. However, sometimes it seemed he was more interested in amusing himself and his audience than in nurturing talent.

Now he has to be nice, or at least nicer — the sensibilities of a broadcast television audience are far more delicate than for satellite radio. He insists that won’t be a problem.

“I think to come in and say now I’ll be the harsh judge to fit the stereotype is ridiculous,” he said. “Anyone who listens to the radio show knows that there are times you're harsh and there are times you're overly compassionate. It's called being a full human being.”

His fellow judges have already seen Stern’s kinder, gentler side.

“He gets passionate and emotional about something you never would think Howard Stern would be passionate and emotional about,” Mandel said. “He cries at children and puppies,” Osbourne added.

That might be a slight exaggeration, but Stern did show a soft touch during one recent audition after he eliminated a child who had more spirit than skills. The boy was on the verge of bursting into tears after the buzzer went off and the lanky Stern rushed to the stage to comfort him.

Howard Stern's return to TV on 'America's Got Talent' raises ire

Howard Stern's big TV return next week on "America's Got Talent" is angering the Parents Television Council, which sent a letter to 91 companies that previously have bought ad time during "America's Got Talent."

The letter urges advertisers to spend their ad dollars elsewhere "unless and until [Stern's] conduct consistently reflects and respects the time, place and manner of an 8 p.m. broadcast television program."

Among the PTC's complaints are Stern's lack of valid judging experience. They write, "Stern's reputation for sleaze and misogyny is well known; and to our knowledge his only previous judging experience consisted of looking at insecure, naked young women and telling them whether or not they were hot enough to pose for Playboy."

The letter also repeated critical comments Stern made about "American Idol" contestant Fantasia Barrino and sexually violent comments he once made to a female guest.

These complaints aren't surprising since the PTC initially expressed its displeasure in November when rumor of Stern's gig was circulating. But as was pointed out then, the group did not raise much of a fuss when Jerry Springer, whose syndicated talk show has had its fair share of strippers and insecure, naked young women, served as presenter on "America's Got Talent" for two seasons.

Meanwhile, Stern's promotional train is in full gear. He's set to appear for the first time on "The View" on Thursday to discuss his new judging duties with Barbara Walters and company.

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-- Patrick Kevin Day

 Photo: Howard Stern. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press

'America's Got Talent' preview shows Howard Stern in action

The premiere of the new season of "America's Got Talent" is just over a week away, but NBC is already whipping Howard Stern fanatics into a frenzy with extended previews of the show's newest judge in action.

So what can we expect from the Stern era of "AGT"? For starters, it appears that Stern wasn't kidding when he told KNBC-TV in February that "There were times when I was downright compassionate."

There he is in the video, giving standing ovations, telling a little girl's dad that he wishes he had a dad like that and telling another performer, "You are what makes America great." Stern has been going on and on about how much he loves being a judge to his satellite radio listeners and it's apparent from this preview that he isn't the sour-faced Simon Cowell-type that everyone expected he would be.

That's not to say that Stern has gone completely soft for network TV. It's apparent that he's still not above the blunt assessment of someone's talents.

And it looks as though "AGT" is going to attempt to give America its own Susan Boyle in the form of a guy with some creepy contact lenses and one strong but high-pitched singing voice. (He even tells the judges he's never performed in front of anyone before.) It may seem like an obvious ploy on the part of the producers, but will Howard fall for it?

The new season of "America's Got Talent" premieres May 14.

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-- Patrick Kevin Day

Photo: Howard Stern on "America's Got Talent." Credit: NBC.com