Howard Stern gave listeners a shock on Monday morning when Andy Cohen took over his timeslot and claimed the channel was now called “Andy 100.”
The stunt came after weeks of promos that promised a big reveal, following swirling speculation that Stern’s show would be cancelled. “The tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, cancelled,” one promo video said. “Is it really bye-bye Booey?”
“I know that you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard, and this is not how things were meant to go,” Cohen, 57, said on-air Monday morning. “There’s been a lot of talk about what’s going to happen with Howard’s deal. Is he fired? I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, except that he’s not here and I am.”
“Howard was supposed to start the show today, and this was supposed to be something of a cleaner hand-off. There is nothing clean about it. Here we are. I’m kind of winging it,” Cohen continued. “I can’t overstate what Howard has meant to this company and what he did for SiriusXM. He walked so that we could run. I can’t possibly fill his void.”
The Real Housewives executive producer went on to say that he was confident that Stern would land a position on another platform soon, before the popular radio host joined him on air and thanked him for going along with the prank.
Stern, 71, took over and confirmed that he would be continuing to work with SiriusXM after rumours began that he hadn’t been renewed.
“I was just getting so f—ing annoyed with everyone writing me, asking me if I was OK because I’d been fired,” Stern began.
“I’m minding my own business, enjoying my summer vacation. [A reporter] says that I’ve been fired for being too woke. In light of the Stephen Colbert firing — because the word on Stephen was that it was all part of this merger, and they fired Stephen because he’s too woke — the story then became ‘Howard Stern is fired because he’s too woke,'” Stern said Monday. “What pisses me off is that now I can’t leave. I’ve been thinking about retiring. Now I can’t.”
“Everything you’ve been reading in the paper about me or Robin [Quivers] is completely false,” Stern added.
After confirming his return to the show on Monday, Stern also hinted that “one of the positive things” about the situation was hearing other companies’ interest in The Howard Stern Show.
“I’m very happy at Sirius,” Stern said before praising SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz.
Witz had previously released her own statement about Stern, saying, “I think he’s been core to our platform for over 20 years, so I’m confident we’ll get to the right place.”
Speculation grew after Stern postponed his return from a summer break last week. His show told listeners that he would address the topic of his SiriusXM deal when he returned on Sept. 2, but he postponed the show’s return until Sept. 8.
Stern did not share if he had signed a new contract with SiriusXM as his current deal expires at the end of 2025.
“Here’s the truth: SiriusXM and my team have been talking about how we go forward in the future. They’ve approached me, they’ve sat down with me like they normally do, and they’re fantastic,” Stern shared.
Stern joining what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in 2006 made him one of the highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a game changer for both the company and the nascent satellite radio industry.
Stern extended his contract with SiriusXM twice before, in 2010 and again in 2020, with a five-year, US$500-million deal, Forbes reported.
“He’s been with me and the company going on two decades, and so he’s pretty happy, but he’s also able, like many great artists, to stop whenever he wants,” SiriusXM president and chief content officer Scott Greenstein told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “Nobody will ever replace them. We would never try to replace them.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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