Dateline: February 16, 1999
Howard Stern Has A TV Hit
But Not A Knockout!
By LAWRIE MIFFLIN
NEW YORK -- When Howard Stern, the disk jockey synonymous
with the
term "shock jock," announced he was turning his radio
show to
late-night television on Saturday nights, he bragged he would
turn
NBC's "Saturday Night Live" into "Saturday Night
Dead."
With the season half over, how is he doing?
Stern's show has barely dented "Saturday Night Live,"
with one
exception: Among men ages 18 to 34, an audience most television
stations find difficult to attract, "The Howard Stern Radio
Show" is a
hit.
"Among men 18 to 34, we're beating 'Saturday Night Live,'
and in our
first season," Stern crowed during a speech-and-standup routine
he
performed at the television industry's annual programming convention
last month.
Like much of what Stern says, that was exaggerated. His show
is
beating "Saturday Night Live" among men 18 to 34 in
seven or eight
big-city markets, including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia,
and a
handful of smaller cities. But its national rating among that
age
group trails the NBC show.
In total viewers, "Saturday Night Live" has an average
of 8.2 million
to Stern's 2 million ("Mad TV," Fox's Saturday late-night
comedy show,
attracts about 4.9 million), although Stern's show is available
on
only 65 stations, reaching about 61 percent of American homes,
while
"Saturday Night Live" is on 219 stations, reaching almost
all of the
nation's homes.
"He set up a bad comparison for himself when he said
he was going to
get 'Saturday Night Live,"' said Marc Berman, an analyst
for Seltel
Inc., who advises local stations about programs to buy. "He's
comparing apples to oranges, because 'Saturday Night Live' is
in 99
percent of the country."
Berman added: "But if you look at individual markets,
particularly
urban markets, he has brought a lot of new viewers to the time
period.
He's tripling the number of men, and he's bringing in more women,
too."
Berman said it was not a case of taking viewers away from
"Saturday
Night Live" or Fox's "Mad TV," either, but of attracting
new viewers,
who otherwise might not have been watching television at all at
that
time.
For Eyemark Entertainment, the CBS-owned syndication company
that
distributes Stern's show, and for the 12 CBS-owned stations that
show
it, "The Howard Stern Radio Show" is considered successful
because it
has substantially improved the rating that most stations used
to get
in that time period (usually with reruns).
That means it has increased the money stations make in that
time
period, although not necessarily substantially. Many advertisers
still
shy away from the Stern show because of its lewd and, by most
standards, tasteless shenanigans.
Indeed, when the general manager of WBDC-TV in Washington,
said
earlier this month that he would not renew the Stern show for
next
season, his reason was that although ratings had improved, the
objections from local advertisers were such that the station was
not
earning enough extra money to make it worthwhile.
Since its Aug. 28 debut, a dozen stations that bought the
show from
Eyemark have dropped it, including stations in St. Louis, Phoenix
and
San Diego; the Houston station carrying it also has said it will
not
renew.
From the start, 12 of the 14 CBS- owned-and-operated stations
agreed
to carry "The Howard Stern Radio Show"in the 11:30 p.m.
time period,
opposite "Saturday Night Live" (the exceptions are in
Green Bay and
Salt Lake City), and those stations have all seen their ratings
for
the time slot jump, especially among men. The show ranks either
first
or second among young men in its time slot in those 12 markets,
and in
many of them, CBS had ranked as low as sixth or seventh last season.
"To take off nationally, they need to get the show cleared
in more
than 65 percent of the country," Berman said.
That is why Stern went to speak at Natpe, the convention of
the
National Association of Television Programming Executives, last
month.
Stern's speech emphasized that his brand of blunt sexual humor
has
often been imitated, even by shows in other genres, and has changed
the standards for what's acceptable on television.
"Every time Ricki Lake uses the word 'penis' on the air,
she has me to
thank," he said. And, citing a renowned remark by Newton
N. Minow when
he was the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,
Stern
said: "Newton Minow said it best: 'Television is a vast wasteland.'
And I'm here to reassure you that I'll do all I can to make sure
it
stays that way."
After his speech, Stern held court at Eyemark's convention
booth to
chat with potential customers. No new stations signed up, but
his
effort might help persuade some to buy the show for next season.
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