Last night, David Letterman's show with Howard Stern discussing the lawsuit CBS has filed against him got a 4.2 rating whereas Jay Leno, with no big guests, got a 4.9. That's got to be disappointing for the Letterman people, especially since Monday is usually one of their strongest nights. Perhaps it was because CBS barely mentioned Stern in the promos for the show but I don't think that was it. I think it was because America doesn't care about outrageously wealthy people and companies suing each other.
Stern has a problem. It's one that we'd all love to have but it is a problem: His money has become too conspicuous. Johnny Carson used to wince when guests remarked on how much money he had. It was fine to make fun of his suits or his monologue bombing or even his many divorces. But when they mentioned that he was the highest-paid performer in television, they made it that much harder for him to keep audiences liking him, as opposed to resenting him, and laughing at remarks about the things that annoy us all. It was funny for a while there when Johnny was kvetching about how he'd gotten stuck with a DeLorean automobile that didn't run and which no one wanted to buy. It was a little less funny if you remembered that Johnny was making enough money to buy five new cars a week.
The last time I heard Howard Stern on the radio, he was complaining about all the potholes in New York City streets. Once upon a time, this kind of talk was articulating the gripes and concerns of his listeners. But now there's been so much written about his contracts and deals that there must be people thinking, "Poor Howard…has to ride over a few potholes on his way to get paid a few million dollars a week for talking airhead strippers into taking their clothes off for him." At some point, a multi-millionaire complaining about little things sounds very much like Marie Antoinette or Leona Helmsley. People who can't afford to pay off their Visa cards sit there muttering, "What are you bitching about?" A lot of people, I gather, listen to Stern because they think, "He's one of us." Well, he won't be "one of us" for long if people keep getting reminded that he makes more money in one day than they'll see in five years.