Saturday, April 12, 2008

No More Artie on Howard

My Favorite personality of the Howard Stern Show of Late might be leaving. As you know I am a proud Sirius subscriber, mainly for access to the uncensored Howard Stern Show. Artie Lange has been a fixture on Howard for over 7 years and according to recent polls, he is the most popular personality even beating out Howard.

But Artie has had his battles with alcohol, Heroin, and other controlled substances. This has led to some issues as of late with his performance on air. Not only is he tempermental, he falls asleep frequently while on air. Artie has gained over 100 pounds in the past year and is heading down the path of other comedians such as Farley and Belushi.

On Thurday's show Artie had an outburst of verbal and physical nature towards Teddy, his assistant. I did not hear the show that AM. And sadly they did not re-air the west coast feed in the afternoon like usual. According to reports, Artie became verbally abusive and quickly escalated to an attempt of physical violence which was thankfully detered by other staff.

This is shocking and sad. It is sad to think of Artie's demise and if this is rock bottom for him. As for now he has tendered his resignation from the show and Howard accepted. Howard stated that he cannot condone physical outbursts in the studio.

This is a big loss for the show and for fans of Howard and Artie's. I hope that things might resolve themselves over time, and Artie can return to the show. There will be a very difficult void to fill in Artie's absence.

I saw Artie in LA last week, at the Gibson Amphitheater and he did a great job. I wish him all the best.

No comments: