Why Adam Carolla is right about Alison Rosen

(Note that this post probably requires reasonable knowledge and appreciation of the Adam Carolla Show podcast for it to be enjoyable. If that doesn’t apply to you, you have permission to skip this one and move on to another post where I comment on something you also have no idea about but actually require the education at least)….

Adam Carolla opened his first show of 2015 with the announcement that his news-girl cohost for the past 4 years would not be a part of the show anymore. He said it was nothing personal and there were no hard feelings but that he thought she was a great talent but not a very good sidekick. He is correct.

I loved Alisons addition to the show and thought the 3 hosts had an awesome dynamic and Alisons contributions were always funny and on point. But Adam is right. Rosen was a poor sidekick. She was a co-host. And in essence, the role of a sidekick is obviously part co-host – but not an equal one.

Alison Rosen is a slightly more attractive Andy Richter. Richter was Conan O’Briens sidekick who aspired to be more and was in the role as sidekick as a springboard to those aspirations, not because he was a team mate with Conan. Richter left to pursue an acting career that didn’t pan out and found himself offered a sidekick role again over what appears to be O’Briens pity and good nature (not because Richter isn’t talented, but because the role is unnecessary to O’Briens show), – which I heard him lament on Marc Marons podcast, stating that he never wanted to be a sidekick and essentially stated how he had got himself stuck in the role that he is now making the best of. Like Richter, Rosen is not in her dream job as sidekicking the Adam Carolla Show in the way that Robin Quivers is in her role sidekicking on The Howard Stern Show.

Rosen was fantastic comedically on her own and in the group and I would have never suggested she would ever need to go, but immediately when Adam used the word “sidekick” I didn’t hesitate for a second to stamp his description of her being “not a very good” one as being correct. As an entertainer with a brand bearing my name myself, I have immediate respect for this decision.

Carolla is the host of the show. It’s his vision of what it should be that is what it should be. While I as an audience member enjoyed Alisons equal-level co-host role in the show, the fact is that it was not a co-host role and therein not what the show should be.

But that’s only why Adam is right about having the power to make the decision to fire Rosen. He was also correct to exercise that right from a branding and product-for-the-consumer standpoint. The brand of the Adam Carolla Show needs a better team player that is more than just independently good but rather is interactively boosting of the team. This also results in a better product for the consumer. I know because I’ve witnessed it before and so have any of you who have been listening to the show since before it was a podcast and it was the morning radio show that replaced Howard Stern on the west coast.

This was the original Adam Carolla Show:


Adam, Danny Bonaduce, & Teresa Strasser

This was a highly enjoyable show. Adam tied the show together, wrangling liberal jewish newsgirl Teresa Strasser and former child star from the Partridge Family, Danny Bonaduce. Bonaduce was my guilty pleasure of the show when I used to listen from 07-on. His stories were bizarre and he told them with an overacted tone that was just self-aware enough in its theatrics to be charming instead of douchie, and his moments from outbursts to opening monologues about his divorce that was ongoing at the time. He was a highlight of the show. But Adam, rightly didn’t like his presence as a sidekick and lobbied the station to have him moved off the show (not necessarily fired). Carolla eventually won, which pleasantly resulted in Bonaduce getting his own show on the same station later in the day, but he had to kick Bonaduce out.

As a viewer, I was initially annoyed that something I liked about the show was now missing, but stuck with it anyway. The ensuing episodes without Bonaduce were quickly the best I had ever heard. Not because Bonaduce wasn’t an entertaining addition – rather he was better off with his own show, which I enjoyed as well (until the station went off the air and he moved to the east coast to host a morning show there). But The Adam Carolla Show with Teresa Strasser and a now more prominent role of the sound effects guy, Bald Bryan, who previously would only chime in occasionally with his actual voice instead of playing sound clip drops in between the conversations going on. The show continued that way into podcasting after the station they were on got replaced with a music station and it got better and better, quickly becoming a favorite I would recommend to others. What made it so much better?

Adam replaced an entertaining and talented but non-team-playing sidekick with a team playing sidekick and it resulted in an inarguably better show that was uniquely an Adam Carolla styled production. Both from the audience standpoint, and the identity of the Adam Carolla Show brand, the switch of the brash anti-improving Bonaduce with the yes-anding Bald Bryan and the show was top notch.

When Teresa Strasser chose to leave the show in favor of a job opportunity in Phoenix, auditions for a new news girl were held and Alison Rosen was chosen. This in effect undid the Bonaduce swap, as it replaced a team player with a player aspiring to have their own team.

Carolla was right to “go in a different direction” from now on.

UPDATE: Rosen confirmed on Instagram that the decision was a surprise to her. Meaning she was shocked to find out she was fired. Also she said she will be “taking her show with her”, confirming that her own podcast will no longer be on Carolla Digital, which in turn confirms that she was fired with intent. Meaning, it was a clear decision to cut ties with Rosen and not simply replace her as her role of sidekick. Unless there was a major incident (which I doubt), this means that Carolla had major problems with Alisons execution of her role and despite efforts, they weren’t being fixed so much so to the point that he let her go.