Adele has been facing criticism since her interview with Oprah Winfrey in November 2021. Many of her critics, including Piers Morgan, found the interview to be incredibly "shallow". But this hasn't seemed to shake Adele's opinion who took to Twitter to claim that she deeply enjoyed her time talking with Oprah. But Piers wasn't the only one who didn't like the conversation between the two women who are best-known by just their first name. Radio legend Howard Stern was also really unhappy with the interview. But while many who disliked the interview blamed Adele, Howard was after Oprah.
This shouldn't surprise fans of the self-proclaimed King of All Media. After all, he has a very complicated relationship with Oprah. While he respects her struggle and can't stop tuning into her life, he really dislikes her work ethic as well as her interviewing skills. Given that Howard is known as the best celebrity interviewer around right now, his opinion on the subject is pretty valid. Here's what Howard had to say about the interview and why he feels that Oprah botched it.
Howard Stern Doesn't Like How Oprah Interviews And Thought Her Time With Adele Was Too 'New Agey'
Howard Stern has been openly critical of many things that Oprah Winfrey has done, including her interviewing style. This includes her over-the-top greetings, how she lets subjects off the hook, and how she "Mhm-s" her way through each interview. But Howard had some other issues with Oprah's interview with Adele. During his November 16th episode of his SiriusXM radio show, Howard and his longtime co-host Robin Quivers discussed the highly publicized interview and revealed that Adele will make her Howard Stern Show debut in early 2022. While Howard maintains that he doesn't dislike Oprah, as he watched all of her prep for the interview, he just wasn't impressed with her interviewing techniques... yet again.
"I don't want to say that I'm better than Oprah but I thought the conversation was a little odd," Howard said to Robin after his producer, Gary Dell'Abate revealed that Adele had been booked for his show. "I thought there was something really interesting about Adele but they never got to it."
"What did Oprah talk about?" Robin asked, saying she had not yet watched the interview.
"Don't ask me! I watched the whole thing," Howard said. "I feel like with Oprah, everyone tries to get really deep -- and by 'deep' I mean some of that nonsense talk. Gobblediguck. You know, nature, and forces, and getting in touch with one's self... 'New age' is the best way I can describe the conversation and Oprah encourages it by going 'Yeah, yeah'. Like she understands what everyone's talking about."
Additionally, Howard believes that because of this image that Oprah has created for herself, everyone she sits with wants to please her so they don't challenge anything she says. They go along with all of her schticks, even when it doesn't make any sense or isn't authentic to the interviewee. Perhaps this is a similar reason why Piers Morgan and many others believed Adele and Oprah's interview felt "shallow".
While Howard had his criticisms, he did say that he enjoyed how "great" Adele looked as well as the concert portion of the interview. Even more than that, he loved seeing Seth Rogen in the audience and really couldn't understand why he was there.
What Will Howard Stern Do When He Interviews Adele?
We know what Howard thinks about Adele's interview with Oprah, as well as practically every major interview Oprah has done, but what would Howard do differently as an interviewer? ...Aside from showing Adele Robin Quivers' take on "Hello", that is....
"Adele should come in here," Howard said, hoping the "Skyfall" singer doesn't cancel her upcoming appearance. "[I'd] ask her real stuff. Because I think she's an interesting woman. Like, she started to tell Oprah that her dad was an alcoholic and that he was very absent from her life. And this was a big ache in her heart that her father had no interest in her. And I was curious about that but then they got into some crystal stuff... I don't want to say crystals. But it got very new agey and I don't know what the f*** anybody is talking about."
The power of Howard Stern's interviews is that he cuts through the mumbo-jumbo and gets right to the heart and soul of a person. He spends time on their pain and dissects it with all the skills he's learned from psychoanalysis. While it's a specific type of interview, it's almost certainly different than anything Oprah does. And this is ultimately why Howard just didn't connect with Oprah's time with Adele.