Howard Stern didn’t have former presidential candidate Herman Cain on his program today as promised.
Instead, Stern had a Cain impersonator on for a faux interview.
Nothing wrong with that, per se. Impersonators are the coin of the realm for comics, and it isn’t the first time Stern has used them for his shtick. Some of his best bits featured an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator – although the real Ah-nold himself has also been on the radio show.
But when Stern announced that Cain would be in-studio yesterday, it seemed like the real deal, straight face and all.
No dice.
Mediabistro, one of the few sites which originally reported Stern’s Cain announcement yesterday, revealed that a Cain impersonator got the grilling instead.
Had the impersonator appeared on the show via a random call-in, the gag would have been grand. Instead, by announcing the bit as a real radio moment, it shows Stern longs for the days when his radio blatherings mattered.
Stern’s current schedule on SiriuxXM radio is so chockablock with vacation time it’s a minor miracle when he’s actually live on the air. His new contract has him working three days a week, although he recently agreed to do four shows during the month of December – but Stern routinely takes the last two weeks of that month off anyway.
And much of his radio time these days involves either denying or confirming media reports about him joining one reality talent show or another. Is that the best the King of All Media, Stern’s self-imposed title, can do?
“The Howard Stern Show” did make news recently. Oscar producer Brett Ratner spilled some sexual secrets on Stern’s radio show right after the director let loose with a gay slur at a movie screening. The combination got Ratner booted from his Oscar gig, but it was more about the gay slur than his sexual confessions.
Either way, Stern’s Cain stunt shows his reign as “King” is all but over.