The long drawn out, month-long tease culminates tonight when Howard Stern appears on The Late Show with David Letterman. Stern, who loathes off-hours (and unpaid) media appearances, had used the writer's strike to keep the Letterman forces at bay. With 8.6 million listeners that have discretionary cash, Stern is a late show booker's dream.

Stern owed Letterman a show-business favor because the equally-reclusive late show host appeared on his History of Howard Stern radio documentary last month.

Now that Worldwide Pants has negotiated a deal with the WGA so that The Letterman Show can return with writers, Stern had no choice but to bite the bullet. From Marksfriggin:

''(Caller Mike) asked about the Letterman appearance he's doing tonight and how he'll be talking about the 8.3 million subscribers they have (at Sirius). Howard said that he's not going to stress out about doing the show and just try to stay calm.

''Howard said that there's an article about how they're hoping that he'll breathe come life into the show tonight when he's on. He didn't know that it was his job to help Letterman beat Leno but that's apparently what he's supposed to do.''

Stern also mentioned on his satellite show this morning that he would discuss with Letterman his longtime desire to host an unscripted prime-time network reality game show a la Howie Mandel as well as Dr. Phil's scurrilous involvement in the Britney Spears mess.