NEED TO KNOW
Howard Stern is not leaving SiriusXM — at least, not yet.
The veteran shock jock, 71, set the record straight on Monday, Sept. 8, after Andy Cohen introduced The Howard Stern Show earlier by himself and said, “This is our first day broadcasting on Andy 100.”
“I know you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard and this is actually not how things were meant to go,” continued Cohen, 57, noting that there was been “a lot of talk about what’s gonna happen with Howard,” including whether he’d been “fired.”
“I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say except that he’s not here and I am,” Cohen added.
About 10 minutes later, Stern jumped on alongside his longtime cohost Robin Quivers and revealed that the Cohen bit was a hoax, saying, “Lest anyone think that was real, that was all masterminded by me … Everything you’ve been reading in the paper about me or about Robin is completely false.”
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According to the Associated Press, Stern thanked Cohen for agreeing to the prank and also addressed rumors that have swirled about him potentially leaving SiriusXM after nearly 20 years.
“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. We’ve been talking,” said Stern during his segment.
On Aug. 5, several outlets reported that The Howard Stern Show was getting canceled. But on Monday, Stern said there was “zero truth” to rumors that he was fired over being “too woke,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, as well as no animosity from his end in terms of airtime and representation of both Cohen, who has two channels on SiriusXM, and podcaster Alex Cooper. (In 2024, Cooper signed a $125 million three-year deal with SiriusXM.)
Stern added on his show that he is “very happy at Sirius” and doesn’t actually know Call Her Daddy star Cooper, 31 — but noted, per THR, “if she is young and bubbly, God bless her because I’m the opposite.”
“What pisses me off is now I can’t leave,” Stern also said on his show Monday. “I’ve been thinking about retiring, now I can’t, because then they’ll say I got pushed out. So I’ll be back.”
Several individuals expressed their concerns over the prank in comments on an Instagram video of Cohen’s introduction, with Bob Harper writing once the air was cleared, “OMG!!! I was freaking out!!! Thank God I’m hearing Howard and Robin!!!!”
Stern’s wife Beth Stern even chimed in, leaving a single laughing-face emoji in the comments.
During his show, the broadcaster also addressed his absence on the show last week following the end of his vacation.
“Last week I was all set to come on and I made the mistake of going out the last week of my vacation and actually interacting with people and I got so sick,” he said. “I thought I had COVID, but I have a terrible, I don’t know what I have. I just thought it was a cold but this is the cold that won’t go away. Today, I am going to go to a doctor right after the show.”
Stern began his career as a radio host in the 1980s, making his debut on Sirius Satellite Radio (now SiriusXM) in 2006. Over the years, he has amassed a massive fan base, was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2012 and made Forbes’ 2022 list of the highest-paid entertainers.
In October 2024, SiriusXM president and chief content officer Scott Greenstein told THR that he had not heard from Stern about wanting to leave.
“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,” he said. “Nobody will ever replace them. We would never try to replace them. It’s not what is even appropriate, but even practical.”
If Stern were to retire, SiriusXM would continue to own his library of content for several years. As Greenstein told THR, SiriusXM would “always have Howard’s voice on our air.”
