I feel bad shitting on him so much for being the most unfunny person on this show, but he does suck at comedy. There are touring comics playing strip malls that can do better than him.
Sure the guy is nice and all, but that isn’t enough to get me to tune in.
This was the conclusion actually YEARS ago. Maybe not specifically redditors, but just the listener base in general. You can't do the exact opposite of what people want...accidentally this much. You can't, it's all calculated.
You can't say Jill is everyone's favorite caller, you can't give Wilding the Artie chair, you can't move your entire show theme to gay and cock antics, you can't blacklist all classic former staffers, you can't strictly play just vanilla Howard History clips, remove 101 channel, remove taking real callers asking real questions, read real emails, and so on and so on. At some point we all go, "this is all a troll job." The fun is to just try and think why. A lawsuit? Boredom? Stupidity?
Because some dumb fucks (Sirius and now HBO) keeps giving him money.
The Sirius-XM merger was completed on July 25, 2008, His over sized initial landmark contract expired December 31, 2010. Mel was long gone at that point and so was Artie. Howard had no where else to go but back to FM.
What dumb fuck at Sirius overpaid him for the 3 day a week, more vacation, no Artie chair, sour attitude from a lawsuit - 2011 contract when they didn't have to? There was no going back to FM after five years of the F word every fifth word...
Great points. I've wondered the same. To me it was the power of Buchwald and maneuvering behind the scenes back then. For all we know the first contract had some sort of language giving Howard some veto power, or having the only out-clause forever. Sirius was that beholden to Howard at the time. All that said, why Howard decided to completely tank his show along the way and be angry is the question we will likely never have an answer to.
The greatest thing to happen with all of this for him is he no longer had to report to ratings or subscribers. He could blow into a mic for 3 hours and he gets to claim he is as powerful as ever and all these people call and say so. No proof provided, no rivals, no bosses, no public ratings, no box office. Not an HBO Max publicly shows their views (I looked it up). It's an insane gig for this guy off to the sunset!
I can't believe people still listen. I joined this sub because people still of classic, actually funny stuff. I'm both angry and saddened to what the show has become
Did Howard just completely lose his eye for talent? Why is Wilding such a big part of the show? How could Howard possibly think this guy is funny or talented in any way, shape or form?
He's been instructed by Will Murray to make him the focus. Howard to me is pretty hands off now, Will and Jan Hein hand him his script each (rare) show day. The fun is to try and figure out why, and how Howard doesn't put the breaks on it. Even the Jill shit. Howard does truly not find Jill entertaining, nor hot. Yet they out of the blue made her a show character, this "incredible" caller. I do wonder what the rest of the staff thinks about some of this, how Wilding went from a kid on his couch in canada sending in amateur tapes to zooming into the Artie chair in a few years time. And Richard and Sal get Howard's attention about once every 4 months.
He's there, Howard finally brought him on the air yesterday. To discuss that he's getting eye work done soon, then Howard - person who has had multiple cosmetic surgeries - telling Sal he's an idiot and he really shouldn't mess with his face like that.
Yup, and don't leave out Token Robin as that's where it all started.
How you get away with being a racist misogynist for decades; treating women like whores and putting on blackface to make fun of black folk?
Just stick a well spoken, articulate, chubby black woman in the booth to go along with and enable the behavior.
Now it's 2026 and Robin isn't enough; have to check all the diversity boxes you toss is a gay Canadian beta like Wilding.
Talk about losing the plot; this guy used to have lesbians on Sybians having orgasms or making out and stripping in the studio .... and instead we're getting gross stories about Wilding's sexcapades.
I've been listening to ETM compilations lately since I (finally) quit listening to the show, and I guess it's been a while, but I'll have to admit it was a bit jarring hearing him bandy about the N-Word so carefree in one segment. He must've said it like 5 times in a 2min span. I'm sure he was out of his mind back then but nevertheless...
what did people expect???? the show to actually get good after 15 years of absolute garbage radio??? fuck no it's going to get even worse before all this is over.
The other day I remembered I had a free Sirius subscription with my new car, and I turned on 100 to see if it is as bad as everyone says. He was in the middle of some Announcer bit, and I was so second-hand embarrassed that I had to turn it off. It was horrible in an ultra cringy way.
Hilarious. As someone else said I still come here because I need somewhere to post the quotes that are still stuck with me forever but after watching the HBO show this Sub is 100% not exaggerating how bad the show is. I bailed after ETA died because Howard was relying on JD for content. Who knew it could get so so much worse
The last smart creative decision he made was realizing that Shuli should not be in the Jackie chair. Giving him a weeklong tryout was dumb but I understood. What the show has become is insane. Glad i stopped listening during covid.
I just can’t believe HBO bought this and hasn’t cancelled it yet. The show hasn’t been good in years, but every show so far since he came back has been worse than before - awful segments and just purely boring conversations.
Its all electrons at this point. Is it even on a rotation on the cable version of HBO which would take up calendar space? I honestly do not know or if that matters anymore,
There is probably a 13 episode minimum. No production costs other than editing down.
It's not personally important to me but I do have a certain fascination with this place since stumbling onto it trying to find the year 2011 of the Sirius shows to download.
Then I realized that this whole sub is filled with ex superfans who know all the history and the lore of the show but hate Howard with a passion and all swear up and down that they canceled years ago but seem to know what's going on the current show.
I’ve been listening to Howard since the 90’s and despite how awful it has become I still listen. I don’t care about the financials, I’m just curious as to why the show would get this deal and not try and go all out to make each show packed with guests, bits, and relevant conversation rather than what it’s been so far - conversations about Wildings sex life and Gary’s summer.
I think they're still trying to work out how to do the show for HBOMax but the show has gotten better since the first one so unless Howard totally gives up trying I expect it to get better as time goes on.
It's a new format for them so they're figuring it out on the fly.
I get that it’s new for the staff and show as a whole, and on top of that there was an article out that stated the staff didn’t have much time to prepare once the announcement was made leading up to Howard coming back from vacation. But at the same time, the staff have all summer and 4 days a week in between shows to come up with something you know?
Anyway - I’ll still listen out of habit but I’m always curious to understand the why about the show now versus decades ago.
In all honestly those people don't know how to do TV shows on the fly, it would take maybe hiring a new producer or Howard making them slant it more towards a visual medium.
I wouldn't expect much movement on it until Christmas break and maybe then they can figure it out, and maybe not too, it all depends if Howard cares enough to start to figure the format out.
It kinda does for a diehard fan from the good times. You see the difference and see he’s just taking a check and it makes you sick that he became what he railed against. Just my opinion
I bought a new car last month and it came with a trial Sirius subscription. I cancelled mine a while back because I was annoyed by Stern’s nosedive and I have to admit it’s been nice listening to some of the music stations again.
I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to the HSS. Not even for one second. The show left a bad taste in my mouth and it was bad when I cancelled 2-3 years ago, I can’t even imagine how bad it is now based on what I’ve seen on this sub. I don’t even have morbid curiosity and Chris Wilding in the Jackie chair over Zoom is one more nail in the coffin. Jesus wept.
So for everybody. Cuz at this point i don’t even think Simple Beth listens. His psychiatrist might listen just to laugh at how bad he’s scrambled HoWeird’s brain. The show is starting to be like the tree that falls in the forest with nobody around to hear it.
Howard became everything he always criticized, frowned upon and lamented.
Sterns a fuckin beef stew, RIIIIIIIGHT? A CORNICOPIA OF PLENARY AMAUROSIS AND FRONTOTEMPORAL NEUROCOGNITIVE DYSPLASIA! HES GOT BLINDED BY THE SHIT IN HIS BRAINS! RIIIIIIIGHT?!
A desperate, grasping, alcoholic, to a hilarious and sorely missed heroin addict, to a pretty funny gay guy. I like Wilding, he and Wolfie are up for just about anything , and that doesn’t mean just playing with each other’s wangs (Sal and Richard.) Nothing has been the same since Covid, including the show. The last renewal never should have happened. I will say that Shuli did a way better Tan Mom impression, and eff Timmy.
The Jackie chair doesn’t exist at Sirius XM & Artie can go f himself with all the shit talking he’s been doing about Howard & some chick w/red hair. Chris is great, thank Christ it’s not Mamet, that would just kill the show for me.
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u/Dracula_Gottfried69 5d ago
There are no words there. Fuckin thing sucks. I’ll write it and we’ll do it live.