Howard Stern on John Edward and James Randi

[TruthSeeker]

Howard just announced that Crossing Over has been cancelled! :D

He was calling JE a fraud and basically making fun of him. "I'm getting a message from my dead grandpa Saul. JE is cancelled"

Then he mentioned that James Randi is a great debunker but doesn't seem to be around anymore!

Maybe we should email him (?) with the link to this site. My understanding is that Howard's web site plugs always lead to many many hits.

[Hexxenhammer]

We don't get Howard Stern here in Minneapolis but I sent them an email anyway with the randi.org address.

[Upchurch]

Good for Sci-Fi! (Assuming it's true. I didn't see anything about it on their website for the show.)

They've been getting more and more woo-wooy for the last several years, giving up good, honest science fiction (still bitter over Farscape) in favor of hyping paranormal garbage.

[TruthSeeker]

I don't know if it's true either but that's what Howard said.

I emailed him as well. I also told him about the Sylvia clock. I thought it sounded like his kind of thing.

[Upchurch]

Stern Show News (unofficial) (http://www.marksfriggin.com/news.htm) Howard said there was good news today. He read that John Edwards' show ''Crossing Over'' is finally being canceled. Robin said her prayers had been answered. Howard said he didn't know how that show made it that long. He read the press release from the show and pointed out what a phony that guy was. Artie said that there was a great bit that Penn and Teller did where they exposed the phony psychics. They talked about that for a few seconds before moving on to other stuff.
That's about all I can find.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Quick! Someone invite Howard to TAM2.

~~ Paul

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

'CROSSING OVER' CROSSED OUT (http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/44536.htm)

(Three links down in my Google News search: Michael Shermer Answers Viewer Questions on Psychics (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/Living/Michael_Shermer_031211.html) )

[BillHoyt]

Originally posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos
Quick! Someone invite Howard to TAM2.

~~ Paul
D***! My T-Shirt will get to see Howard? Not fair, Paul, not fair!

[BillHoyt]

Originally posted by Mahatma Kane Jeeves
'CROSSING OVER' CROSSED OUT (http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/44536.htm)

(Three links down in my Google News search: Michael Shermer Answers Viewer Questions on Psychics (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/Living/Michael_Shermer_031211.html) )
Cousin,

I had my hopes raised only to have them dashed. Looks like the show will continue on SciFi.

-Upanishad Charles Mahatmacoat

[pupdog]

If Sylvia appeared on the Howard Stern show, would he ask her to show her breasts? :eek:

[BillHoyt]

Originally posted by pupdog
If Sylvia appeared on the Howard Stern show, would he ask her to show her breasts? :eek:

Gaaad, ya just made me spit out a mouthful of Paper City Wee Heavy Winter Palace. Now I've got to lick the floor.

Sheesh, I'd pay money to get a heads-up so that I could be sure to look the other way.

[HENRY MOLISE]

imagine beetlejuice riding on sylvia's back, in a dirty jockey outfit,
spanking her with a dead mackerel.

[BillHoyt]

Originally posted by HENRY MOLISE
imagine beetlejuice riding on sylvia's back, in a dirty jockey outfit,
spanking her with a dead mackerel.

...shouting, "Its Show Time!"

[Dragonrock]

Originally posted by HENRY MOLISE
imagine beetlejuice riding on sylvia's back, in a dirty jockey outfit, spanking her with a dead mackerel.

Thank you for that image. I just had to blind my minds eye.

[thaiboxerken]

It's still a small victory, even if CO is still going to be on the Sci-Fi network. This means that CO will have less exposure. Less exposure means that believers will soon forget about him.

I do wish Sci fi channel would stick with honest scifi shows instead of fiction portrayed as reality.

Battlestar Galactica 2003 was a great show!

[WanderingKnight]

But really, isn't the Sci Fi (which is, after all, short for Science Fiction) the best place for Edwards to be showing?

[Yahweh]

So what comes next in the career of this great medium...

I see a great future ahead, one involving 3 AM infomercials which involve knives that can cut through cans without ever beginning to dull...

[Ipecac]

Originally posted by thaiboxerken
Battlestar Galactica 2003 was a great show!

I agree! Very well done and compelling.

[Darwin'sGoat]

Originally posted by TruthSeeker
Howard just announced that Crossing Over has been cancelled! :D

The thing that got me was when they said the show had been failing for the last 3 seasons. I never would have imagined that he had been doing that poorly. It made me so happy.

Originally posted by Upchurch
Good for Sci-Fi!

They've been getting more and more woo-wooy for the last several years...

The thing that kills me is that every time I wander past a cable box and turn on the Discovery Channel or The Learning Channel all I ever see is a Ghost/Lochness Monster/UFO show. Even the Travel Channel does it!?

Originally posted by WanderingKnight
But really, isn't the Sci Fi (which is, after all, short for Science Fiction) the best place for Edwards to be showing?

But there's a difference between Science Fiction and Fictional Science.

[kookbreaker]

When CO was in its initial prime of woowoo flurry, scifi gleefully went about cancelling projectys in favor of a bunch of John Edward style programs. A dream interpetation show and a bunch of other junk came in place of FarScape. To my knowledge, few of these had much staying power.

So what is it about woowoo's and their lack of long-term ratings power? A show like CO got ratings most shows dream about, and they're cheap as dirt to produce. Yet now it s cancelled.

I've heard it called Omni magazine syndrome, where the pandering to the woowoo market leads to great success at first, then results in the death of the market.

[TruthSeeker]

Maybe it's just me, but, beliefs aside, CO is painfully boring. Exactly the same thing happens every episode. There is no tension, no unresolved issues. He's always right. Even when the person says he's wrong, JE tells them he's right. How boring.

I can't imagine watching it more than a couple of times.

[alfaniner]

Originally posted by kookbreaker
...

I've heard it called Omni magazine syndrome, where the pandering to the woowoo market leads to great success at first, then results in the death of the market.

Is that anything like the "Cocoa/Fruity Pebbles Syndrome", where any fad that shows up on one of these Fred and Barney commercials is automatically declared dead?

[tracer]

Originally posted by Yahweh
I see a great future ahead, one involving 3 AM infomercials which involve knives that can cut through cans without ever beginning to dull...
:eek: No knife made by the hand of Man could possibly accomplish such a feat! It must be getting supernatural help!!

[hgc]

Originally posted by tracer

:eek: No knife made by the hand of Man could possibly accomplish such a feat! It must be getting supernatural help!! You should read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman. They've got a knife that cuts through to parallel universes. Never dulls either.

[SkipMagic]

Originally posted by tracer

:eek: No knife made by the hand of Man could possibly accomplish such a feat! It must be getting supernatural help!!
Ah, yes... then you've already heard of Bowie, the Greek God of Knives, eh? ;)

[Ed]

Originally posted by tracer

:eek: No knife made by the hand of Man could possibly accomplish such a feat! It must be getting supernatural help!!

No. It is a wisdom anicent and dark. In the early days, before Atlantis, before the fell deeds of Zorach the Cruel, before even the time of the anicent wisdomof Ur of the Chaldees there existed .........













The Chop Suey Knifemaker

More of him later....

[tracer]

Originally posted by SkipMagic
Ah, yes... then you've already heard of Bowie, the Greek God of Knives, eh? ;)
I thought he was the Greek god of pop music.

[SkipMagic]

Originally posted by tracer

I thought he was the Greek god of pop music.
That might explain the cutting chords in a few of his songs.

[Darwin'sGoat]

Originally posted by SkipMagic

That might explain the cutting chords in a few of his songs.

ACk! That's horrible.

[bignickel]

Originally posted by Darwin'sGoat

The thing that kills me is that every time I wander past a cable box and turn on the Discovery Channel or The Learning Channel all I ever see is a Ghost/Lochness Monster/UFO show. Even the Travel Channel does it!?


Tonight on the Discovery Channel:

Revelations: The End of the World?

DSC 278 Jan 07 07:00pm
Special/Other, 60 Mins.
The Biblical Book of Revelation describes never-before experienced events


Yes! Just the type of thing that you'd expect to find on the channel dedicated to SCIENCE. A program on a RELIGOUS book that has one chapter describing the value of Pi as THREE>

On right now: sounds like it's narrated by Capt. Sisko of DS9.

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by bignickel


Tonight on the Discovery Channel:

Revelations: The End of the World?

DSC 278 Jan 07 07:00pm
Special/Other, 60 Mins.
The Biblical Book of Revelation describes never-before experienced events


Yes! Just the type of thing that you'd expect to find on the channel dedicated to SCIENCE. A program on a RELIGOUS book that has one chapter describing the value of Pi as THREE>

On right now: sounds like it's narrated by Capt. Sisko of DS9.

avery brooks has an awesome voice.

[fishbob]

But really, isn't the Sci Fi (which is, after all, short for Science Fiction) the best place for Edwards to be showing? Not quite, there is lots of Fi, but not any Sci.

They've been getting more and more woo-wooy for the last several years, giving up good, honest science fiction (still bitter over Farscape) in favor of hyping paranormal garbage. Texas Accent/] Wuz that that show bout them little ladders on the outside of tall buildin's? [/Texas accent/

[tracer]

Originally posted by bignickel
A program on a RELIGOUS book that has one chapter describing the value of Pi as THREE
Now now, they were rounding to the nearest integer in those passages. (If the diameter of the "sea" was 9.6 cubits, and the circumference was 30.159289 cubits, that would round to the "10 cubits across" and "30 cubits around" figures quoted in those verses.)

[Jas]

My brother had me watch the South Park with John Edward. It was FANTASTIC. Especially the part where he wins the 'Biggest Douche in the Universe' (a contest only Trey Parker and Matt Stone could come up with;) )

[bignickel]

Originally posted by tracer

Now now, they were rounding to the nearest integer in those passages.

They? Who's they? Remember, according to the fundies, the Bible is the LITERAL word of G_d.

G_d says Pi is 3.

And he can't reveal future events right up front in easy to understand language. He has to cloak it under tons of metaphor so that it's all 'clear' what happened only after the event took place.

[Quinn]

Originally posted by kookbreaker
So what is it about woowoo's and their lack of long-term ratings power? A show like CO got ratings most shows dream about, and they're cheap as dirt to produce. Yet now it s cancelled.

I always thought his viewership must work about the same as the bridal industry:
completely different set of customers every season. I imagine a few million recently bereaved people watching for a while, wondering if someone like him could help them. Then eventually they either get over it, or else fall for it and go see his show (or some other medium) and receive whatever kind of phony and ill-gotten sense of closure they can. In either case, afterward they no longer have an emotional need to watch his show, in which case it's pretty damn boring. Of course he's got his base of true fans, like anyone, but I'd be very surprised if the vasy majority of his viewers weren't transient.

And if that's the case, then maybe, just maybe, it means the efforts of people like Randi and Shermer and the South Park guys have paid off a little bit, and helped to inform more people about his con game before they find themselves in a state where they would otherwise be inclined to fall for it.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by Quinn
I always thought his viewership must work about the same as the bridal industry:
completely different set of customers every season. I imagine a few million recently bereaved people watching for a while, wondering if someone like him could help them. Then eventually they either get over it, or else fall for it and go see his show (or some other medium) and receive whatever kind of phony and ill-gotten sense of closure they can. In either case, afterward they no longer have an emotional need to watch his show, in which case it's pretty damn boring. Of course he's got his base of true fans, like anyone, but I'd be very surprised if the vasy majority of his viewers weren't transient.

And if that's the case, then maybe, just maybe, it means the efforts of people like Randi and Shermer and the South Park guys have paid off a little bit, and helped to inform more people about his con game before they find themselves in a state where they would otherwise be inclined to fall for it.

You are dead(!) wrong. It's quite the opposite.

His fans know each other. They meet on discussion boards, such as Pam Blizzard's and TVTalkshows. They exchange experiences, opinions and feeble hopes of being read by "John". They announce on the boards who they want to connect with, details about their personal lives, and when they have tickets. They come back after being read (those Lucky Few Chosen), to receive accolades and adoration. They discuss "hits" but rarely "misses".

And they are predominantly female a wee past their prime. Remember "Soccer moms"? Think "Bereaved middle-aged women".

It's a closed system. They are sucked into this world of deceit, and they do it willingly.

John Edward will go the way of Peter Popoff: His fan base will only dwindle when the fans start to die. Some will slink off into the dark, never to be heard of again, too ashamed to admit that they were suckered, but the remainder will stay and debate the readings, watching the videos over and over again.

[Jeff Corey]

But Peter Popoff came back.

[Darwin'sGoat]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
They exchange experiences, opinions and feeble hopes of being read by "John". They announce on the boards who they want to connect with, details about their personal lives, and when they have tickets.

I had never heard this before. Absolutely amazing.

[Quinn]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
You are dead(!) wrong. It's quite the opposite.

His fans know each other. They meet on discussion boards, such as Pam Blizzard's and TVTalkshows.

Yes, these are the people I referred to as "his base of true fans," but are they really the majority? I imagine a certain percentage get that way after some (sadly) life-changing experience with him, but are there any known stats regarding the number of such people vs. those who simply tune him in for a few weeks or months? Not that I have anything to back up my wild speculation, of course; I would just find it surprising if the fawning sycophants outnumbered the casual viewers.

[UserGoogol]

SciFi also aired Apollo 18. That's on the other end of the spectrum. They clearly have no idea what "Scifi" actually means down there.