A war is heating up online that could help determine what happens to the programming on A&E. The combatants are the fans of Law & Order and the admirers of Sandra Bernhard. At issue is the coveted 11 PM timeslot. Sandra fans like having it. Law & Order fans want it back. I gotta tell ya’ folks, it’s getting ugly.

Critics panned The Sandra Bernhard Experience. In fact, the criticism has been downright merciless. Coast to coast, from the New York Post to the L.A. Times, critics have blasted the show. The Post said, “about as funny, raw, sexy, and in your face as Wheel of Fortune.”. The L.A. Times noted, “Now you know what Jerry Lewis endured as abductee Jerry Langford”. And no, they didn’t like in the middle of the country any better. The Chicago Tribune asked us to “imagine a Dennis Miller without humor”.

One supporter of the show is our own Justin Braveman. ( read his review here). Justin not only liked the show, but was also nervy enough to criticize his own editor. The difference between A&E and dumbest.tv, however, is that we’re going to keep Justin. Sandra Bernhard, on the other hand, may not be so lucky.

Besides the negative press the show has received, the Law & Order fans are out for blood. A&E’s message boards received hundreds yes hundreds of comments in the first 48 hours following the premiere. ( View A&E boards ) The Sandra Bernhard boards have become flooded with comments both for and against the show. I’ve been on the internet a number of years and seen a lot of boards. These messages make the OJ and Lewinsky boards seem boring by comparison.

One Sandra fan said, “Leave your trailers folks and get some CULTURE!!”. A L&O fan called Ms. Bernhard “a talentless, abrasive s-k-a-n-k.”. Still another L&O fan calls her “brassy, rude, low class”. Other comments border on the anti-Semitic and the homophobic. Then, of course, there are the reactionary comment about BEING anti-Semitic and homophobic. I’ve seen abortion boards that are more civil.

Strangely enough, I’ve met both Jerry Orbach and Sandra Bernhard. Both were chance meetings on the streets of New York. Orbach was filming Law & Order down by Wall Street. Bernhard was loading an amplifier into a club on Christopher Street. It occurs to me that these two would probably get along. Both like the grit and gristle of the city. Both love music, and both love and respect their craft. I can see them working together on a project. For some reason, it makes sense to me.

The fans see things differently. It’s do or die. It’s black or white. No prisoners.

In the end, only one will prevail.

Stay tuned.

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