Howard Stern as ‘America’s Got Talent’ judge? No way, says parents group
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Does the Parents Television Council have a Howard Stern bias?
Rumors that Stern is being considered as the new judge for the NBC talent competition show ‘America’s Got Talent’ has the advocacy group fired up, and they are instructing NBC to vote him out of consideration, saying he is not appropriate for the family-friendly series.
‘If the rumors are true that NBC is considering the addition of radio shock-jock Howard Stern to the ‘America’s Got Talent’ judges table, the result will be the alienation of tens of millions of advertising dollars,’ said PTC President Tim Winter in a statement. ‘Such a move smacks of desperation by the once-proud peacock network. Any short-term buzz from Stern’s shock value will result in a longer-term decline as families abandon the show for more suitable programming.’
Rumors about Stern began circulating last week following the announcement that judge Piers Morgan was departing to concentrate on his CNN talk show.
WInter added that it was been ’25 years since [NBC] legendary network president Grant Tinker fired Howard Stern ‘not because he wasn’t funny but because he was disgusting.’ ‘ Stern worked for the network’s flagship New York radio station WNBC at the time.
‘Bringing Stern to a program like ‘America’s Got Talent’ is decidedly a bad business decision,’ Winter said. ‘We hope the programming executives at NBC realize it before Stern has an opportunity to sucker-punch families who tune in for a talent show.’
The group voiced similar opposition to Stern last year when he was rumored as a possible judge for ‘American Idol.’
But the PTC does appear to have a double standard when it comes to ‘America’s Got Talent.’
The advocacy group did not put up much of a fuss when Jerry Springer was the host for two seasons of ‘America’s Got Talent’, even though Springer’s syndicated talk show regularly features violence and (pixilated) nudity while showcasing strippers, prostitutes, cheaters and others in hair-pulling brawls.
Stern, meanwhile, declined to confirm or deny that he was in negotiations to be on the series, though he said on his Monday morning Sirius XM satellite radio show that he said he loved ‘AGT’ and would be honored to ‘judge these lunatics.’
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— Greg Braxton
