Howard Stern Makes Clear Who He Supports and Continues His Climb to the Top

David Letterman was all smiles recently when he welcomed the King of all Media to his program, Howard Stern. Stern has appeared on the program many times in the past. Often he comes with tales from his kingdom, stories of his many conquests and this time he did not disappoint.

What became evident at first was that Stern wanted to make something clear. He was in Letterman's corner. Although there may be times when it is difficult to tell who Stern counts as an ally, tonight it was obvious. Stern is behind Letterman. To clarify, he is giving the late night host his support.

It was well documented int the early nineties that a battle of sorts was waged between two camps in pursuit of the late night crown. Johnny Carson was stepping down as the undisputed king of late night talk at the time, paving the way for somebody to take over The Tonight Show. Although it was not clear exactly why Johnny was stepping down at the time, although speculation was rampant, one thing was certain, there were only two front runners for the job.

At the time, Letterman's show at NBC was doing great and his people made it clear that Dave wanted to step into the earlier time slot and take over The Tonight Show. Also in contention was the premiere Tonight Show guest host, Jay Leno. Leno had cut his chops on the road for years. It was rumored that in any given year he would play in excess of three hundred dates, an astounding workload for any comic. More impressive however, was the following and support Leno was getting from The Tonight Show team at NBC, as well as its audience. The race was on.

Despite a significant amount of negotiations back and forth, endless speculation and media spin, Leno came out victorious and the world watched Johnny Carson take his final bow. At the time, the decision aggravated the Letterman camp so much so, he eventually jumped ship and moved his show over to CBS. The ratings war began. It was Letterman who took the early lead until Leno had Hugh Grant appear on the show to discuss getting caught with a prostitute in the back seat of a cab. The Tonight Show took the lead, never to fall behind again.

However, several years later, things changed when the network approached Leno to inform him that they were going to pass The Tonight Show torch to Conan O'Brien in an attempt to keep him with the network. Leno allegedly agreed to pass the show to Conan five years later and at a later date it was determined that Jay would get another show in a different time slot.

Fast forward to a little over a year ago, with Conan at the helm of The Tonight Show, ratings plummeted while Leno's show, at an earlier time slot was canceled for poor performance. Leno is given the show back, Conan walked away with a substantial severance and agreed to stay of television for a year. Letterman takes the lead in the ratings.

During his appearance on Letterman, Stern made it clear that he has no love for Jay and hopes that Letterman destroys him in the ratings. Much to do allegedly with how the whole transfer of power at NBC was handled. He made it clear that Letterman was his flavor of the month. Only time will tell how the war will play out.

Dave also needled the shock jock about his impending deal with satellite radio. The story goes Stern stands to make half a billion after stock options are taken into consideration. Letterman asked him if the amount rumored to be going to Stern was accurate. Stern wryly admitted he was to receive a good amount of money but it wasn't exactly what was being reported. Now it appears Stern will be litigating with his bosses at satellite radio over exactly what the deal was supposed to be. And so goes the superstar world of Howard Stern.