Stern debuts on 'America's Got Talent'

THE SHOW "America's Got Talent"

WHEN | WHERE Season premiere Monday night and Tuesday night from 8 to 10 on NBC/4

REASON TO WATCH Howard Stern

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Well, there's this new judge, you may have heard, but also a couple of other new twists this season -- live editions starting early July will originate from Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, relocated from the West Coast to accommodate Stern's Sirius XM radio show. (The show also breaks for the Olympics -- July 27-Aug. 12.)

MY SAY Come on! Really? Seriously?! Howard Stern and TV are a match made in hell, and he has the littered wreckage of series dating back 20 years to prove it -- radio show simulcasts or pay-per-view don't count, but E!'s "The Howard Stern Interview" (1992-93) and WWOR/9's "The Howard Stern Show" (1990-92) do. Too divisive. Too vulgar. Too hot. No shortage of reasons given over the years for the King of Almost All Media's failure at TV.

And yet . . . this casting move may well be inspired, and the best pairing of reality show to talent since Donald Trump was plucked from obscurity (kidding) to ham up "The Apprentice." First, let's remember who Stern is replacing -- Piers Morgan, a sour lemon who scrutinized acts as if examining a rabid squid.

Sure, "Talent" can be genuinely entertaining, but it also can be spectacularly low rent, like some circus freak tent turned Vegas lounge act meant to divert the gamblers before they wander back to the craps table. Stern knows most of it's junk (he's said so) but also brings the true passion of a fan. And once you get past the rapping grannies, the guy with 20 pairs of underwear, the skiing squirrels and the male pole dancers -- easy fodder for Stern's cutting humor -- you've got the occasional Jackie Evancho.

He knows that, too. Will Stern bring his swinish sensibility? Highly doubtful, because it's not needed here. All he needs to be is funny and sharp. Stern can do that, too.

BOTTOM LINE A big summer hit is about to get bigger. Stern haters will have to deal with it.