Are people really still freaking out over Howard Stern? Apparently over at the PTC they are, and this time they’re urging sponsors to boycott America’s Got Talent because he will soon be stepping into a judging position on the show. The watchdog organization apparently thinks he will judge inappropriately.
The Parents Television Council has sent letters to the 91 sponsors of the competition show on NBC, says The Hollywood Reporter, urging them to withdraw their support due to Stern’s involvement. When Stern was confirmed as a judge on the show replacing Piers Morgan, the PTC immediately got its hackles up and complained. Now they’ve decided to make an actual attempt to get the show boycotted. Will they never learn that making a big deal about things actually gets more people to watch and not the other way around?
Stern has been earning himself headlines since the 90s and has pretty much become the personification of a “shock jock” to most Americans. I’d have thought that the shock would have worn off by now. I’d be more concerned about whether Stern is any real judge of talent; then again, that’s probably not why he was hired to do the show. Ratings, people, ratings!
Though Stern hasn’t yet responded to the boycott letter, he did have a response when the PTC originally objected to his joining the show back in December:
"I guess they get their printer out and they make a letterhead and they start to complain that I'm some sort of weird pervert who is going to convert Americans into some kind of zombie sex fiends."
Zombie sex fiends? I think Stern should turn that idea into a script and sell it to HBO. It could air right after True Blood.
