Joan Rivers Makes a Winning Bet

Photo: The Howard Stern Show

Legendary comedian and plastic surgery veteran Joan Rivers came to the show today to plug a variety of gigs she has coming up. Howard said that Joan must feel vindicated that E! refused to give her a raise to continue doing her red carpet show for them so she left and got signed by the TV Guide channel to do the Golden Globes. Joan’s TV Guide show wound up with a 1.3 rating, which is huge in the cable universe but astronomical for the TV Guide channel.

Joan said the channel is thrilled with her and they keep giving her gifts – although they’re not doing a great job picking them out. Joan said all she wants is a flat screen TV from them. Howard said he tried to watch Joan that night but couldn’t find the TV Guide channel. Joan said they were working on getting the word out better. Howard asked Joan why she cried over Johnny Carson’s death and she said it was because she was really sad, especially since they never repaired their friendship. Carson gave Joan her first big writing gig on the Tonight Show, then started putting her on the air eventually letting her guest host the show. She was a big hit and drew big ratings for the Tonight Show and eventually left after 15 years to do her own show for FOX. But apparently Carson was so mad at her for leaving that he never talked to her again, even after Joan’s husband committed suicide and Carson’s son died.

Howard felt that Joan did what she had to do by taking the other job but he also understands why Carson may have felt betrayed so Joan shouldn’t be that surprised that he never talked to her again. Howard asked what Joan thought of Jay Leno’s tribute to Johnny and she said that Jay was trying to re-write history. Joan did admit that even while she and Johnny were friends they never talked off the air. Joan then gave Howard a list of the gigs she wanted him to plug. She said that Will Murray told her she couldn’t have all those plugs but Howard told her not to worry about it and read them all.