Howie Mandel is getting blasted by fans for his podcast interview with Vanderpump Rules star Tom Sandoval. And to be honest, the America’s Got Talent judge kind of deserves some of this criticism!
The 67-year-old veteran television host runs a popular podcast called Howie Mandel Does Stuff. But based on this week’s episode with Ariana Madix‘s disgraced ex-boyfriend, Bravo fans probably think the podcast name should be changed to Howie Mandel Misses The Point. Seriously!!
Related: Raquel Visited Tom’s Hometown In DECEMBER — But Family Didn’t Want To Meet Her!!
As we’ve been reporting, the 40-year-old cover band frontman said a lot of crazy s**t during his 80-minute sit down with Howie and Mandel’s co-host (and daughter) Jackelyn Shultz. Perezcious readers will recall he said in the Tuesday convo he supposedly split from Ariana previously, implying his cheating wasn’t that bad, we guess? Of course, the supposed breakup was on Valentine’s Day… And then there was Tom’s claim he and Raquel Leviss are “kind of taking a break” right now amid the firestorm following the cheating revelation. And then there was Tom defending the fact he flat-out isn’t going to move out of the home he shares with Ariana. Oof!!
But lost in the shuffle regarding Tom’s soft landing on the podcast is just how much fans are HATING Howie’s role in it!! In the comments of the show’s YouTube vid, fans slammed the Deal Or No Deal star. They felt Mandel’s move to ask for empathy for the TomTom owner was too much to handle. And others sensed Howie was trying a little too hard to justify Tom’s cheating ways.
Behold just a (very) few of the thousands of reactions to the sympathy Howie showed Tom throughout the interview:
“Why is howie justifying this?????”
“Uncle Howie, with peace and love you don’t need to justify this man’s actions. He knows what he did was wrong”
“Omg Howie. Stop.”
“Why the hell is howie trying to mansplain cheating and justify it by using mental health”
“omg Howie, you’re embarrassing yourself”
“Howie is giving Andrew Tate. Asks for empathy for Tom without ever offering any to Ariana. Just two man babies feeling victimized for being called out.”
The Andrew Tate name-drop. OUCH!!
One of the biggest points of contention for fans on Tuesday was specifically how Howie very clearly didn’t know enough about the Vanderpump Rules universe to run an in-depth interview. Right from the beginning of the interview, Mandel admitted to not watching VPR and not following the Scandoval storyline. Instead, the America’s Got Talent judge said, he simply liked Tom ever since meeting him at a wedding years ago.
Oookay…
So it’s not that he actually sides with Sandoval after getting all the facts… it’s that he has absolutely NO IDEA what’s going on? So he can’t put the 39-year-old’s claims in context and judge them appropriately (i.e. harshly)?
Howie’s daughter Jackelyn openly admitted to being a huge VPR fan. And with her sitting in the co-host seat, fans were hoping she would take control of the interview and get Tom on the ropes. That’s not what happened though! As Howie continued to control the interview throughout the entire 80-minute ordeal, viewers kept getting more and more frustrated.
Here are a handful of the many reactions to Mandel missing the mark on Tuesday:
“[Howie] has no idea who he is or anything about the show, shut up and let your daughter do the interview!”
“Howie respectfully isn’t asking good questions. We need someone who actually knows what’s going on and didn’t get briefed on the topic.”
“this is the most unprepared, so far fetched pod cast i’ve seen in my entire life. like blind leading blind”
“I’m sorry for Howie’s daughter. She should’ve done this by herself”
“I wish someone was doing his interview that actually knows what’s going on”
“i love this. he literally ran to the one podcast host that literally had no idea of the situation so that he could retell the narrative and cast himself the victim while trying to personify a humble and gracious man.”
“Howie is so clueless… he called Tom a ‘talented young man.'”
“Any time Tom finally started to answer something we were interested in hearing, Howie steered it away.”
”You should not be doing this interview! You don’t know anything Howie!”
Yikes! These VPR stans do not hold back. Not that we’re hating it!! But they definitely put their beloved Bravolebrities through the paces, and Howie is finding that out the hard way right now!
Related: Tom Has His Cover Band Gigs, But Ariana Is Absolutely Thriving Right Now!
The clincher for the poor comedian came when he spouted off about fans needing to have “empathy and compassion” for Tom — the objective f**king villain in the situation!! Howie said on air:
“You need to be heard because the narrative is everyone else’s but but yours. I’m not condoning cheating on a partner. … I think some people have to have empathy and compassion. I don’t understand the hatred and the vitriol.”
You… don’t understand… REALLY??
That obviously just set off fans even more!! These contentious comments rounded out listeners’ and viewers’ reactions to the long and crazy podcast convo:
”Ok I’m done. f**k this piece of vile trash. Howie, lost all respect for you for kissing his vile a$$”
“Howie being an advocate for mental health while allowing Tom to trash Ariana’s mental health is f**ked up”
“Tom and Rachel aren’t the victims here. Ariana is. He deserves every bit of heat that comes his way.”
“Howie you need to wake up to what’s really going on here Tom is a liar”
“You guys had such an amazing opportunity to interview maybe the most sought after person at the moment and this felt CHAOTIC. Howie has no clue what’s going on lol.”
Damn!
But, like, are the fans wrong?? ICYMI (how tho?!) you can re-watch Tom on Howie’s podcast in full (below):
Still wild the second and third times around. LOLz! Reactions, Perezcious readers??
[Image via Tom Sandoval/Instagram/Howie Mandel Does Stuff/YouTube]
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