And so it was. Stern even appeared wearing a t-shirt attacking Moonves.

Yet America seemed pretty disinterested. The Monday night telecast only averaged a 4.2 rating in metered market households, up just 5 percent from the show’s Monday average so far this season.

That’s not a good showing for Stern, the man so famously self-named the King of All Media, and it raises one obvious question: Is he still?

Likely not. And if not, we can expect to see a lot more of Stern in coming months. Stern's biggest worry leaving his nationally syndicated talk show was a hasty fade into obscurity on paid radio, away from the media mainstream and the everyday chatter that kept his popularity quotient high. From tens of millions daily, Stern's potential listenership shrank to some 3.3 million, according to Sirius.

But another likely reason for the low turnout was that America had finally become jaded to the Stern-Moonves squabble. Do they really hate each other? Or is it a lot like pro wrestling, many harsh words outside the ring but love pats and sweet throws once inside?

Indeed, how curious that CBS, which days earlier had sued Stern, would allow him to appear on "Letterman." The suit, filed March 1, charges that Stern breached the terms of his contract by promoting his move to satellite radio while was still with CBS Radio.

Afterward, CBS was quick to characterize Stern’s "Letterman" performance as a desperate attempt to distract attention from the facts of the case.

Meanwhile, in other daypart ratings for the week ended March 5:

NBC’s “Meet the Press” returned to normal coverage after being preempted by Olympics coverage in February. Viewership returned to normal levels, up 23 percent from the week prior, to 3.65 million total viewers.

After a brief stint at No. 1, CBS’s “Face the Nation” returned to its usual second-place spot, down 16 percent to 2.98 million viewers. ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” was about flat with 2.83 million.

NBC’s “Today” dipped slightly this week to 6.3 million viewers, 9 percent less than the week before. Meanwhile, “Good Morning America” posted slight gains, up 4 percent to 5.2 million. “Early Show” was unchanged at 2.9 million.

In syndication, top game show “Wheel of Fortune” posted some gains, up 5 percent to a 9.2 household rating. Other leading programs also posted increases, “Oprah” up 3 percent with a 7.0 and “Everybody Loves Raymond” up 2 percent with a 6.6.

The week ended March 12 was a slow one for network news, with all three newscasts showing little change in viewership. NBC’s “Nightly News” was down 1 percent to 9.35 million, ABC’s “World News Tonight” up 1 percent to 8.55 million, and CBS’s “Evening News” about flat at 7.95 million.