Although he was made fun of for supposedly not being important to the Howard Stern Show, when he left, the show went into a tailspin, desperately seeking to find a replacement... not a writer, ironically, but a co-host, and Jackie was never a co-host. Before Artie Lange was chosen there was a year of various in-studio "auditions" (so to speak), from comedian Craig Gass to AJ Benza.