Howard Stern denies his show has been cancelled with prank segment after weeks of rumors about his future
Howard Stern has denied rumors that his SiriusXM show is being axed after trolling fans with a prank cancellation announcement.
Stern's Howard 100 show kicked off with a staged bit Monday morning which saw a flustered Andy Cohen hosting the program - which he claimed that moving forward would be called Andy 100.
'I know you're expecting a big announcement from Howard and this is not how things were meant to go,' Cohen told listeners. 'This was supposed to be a cleaner hand off. I'm kind of winging it.'
Cohen, 57, called it a 'surreal morning' and said he 'can't possibly fill his void', before adding that he was confident Stern would soon land another radio job.
Stern, 71, came on air about 20 minutes into the program and thanked Cohen for participating in the prank.
The skit comes amid swirling speculation that Stern's SiriusXM deal would not be renewed.
Instead of denouncing the rumors, Stern turned the chatter into a promo for his show, telling listeners last month that he would address the topic on his September 2 show.
But the announcement was delayed until Monday morning, with Cohen leading the big reveal with his staged takeover of Howard 100.
Howard Stern (pictured with wife Beth Stern last month) has renewed his contract with SiriusXM after trolling fans with a fake cancellation announcement
Stern's show Howard 100 kicked off with a staged bit Monday morning which saw a flustered Andy Cohen hosting the program (pictured)
Speculation that Stern was axed from SiriusXM grew after last week after he postponed his return from a summer break to The Howard Stern Show.
'I'm going to have to fill everyone in,' Stern said as he joined Monday morning's broadcast.
He explained to listeners that he missed last week's show due to illness and not because he was still in contract negotiations.
'I was just getting so f*****g annoyed with everyone writing me, asking me if I was okay because I'd been fired,' he added.
Stern recalled how he had been 'minding my own business, enjoying my summer vacation' when he saw a reporter claim that he had been 'fired for being too woke'.
'None of it is true, zero truth,' Stern told his listeners. 'What pisses me off is that now I can't leave. I've been thinking about retiring. Now I can't.'
The Howard 100 host added that he is 'very happy at Sirius'.
Stern joined what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in 2006 and became one of the highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a game-changer for both the company and the industry.
'I know you're expecting a big announcement from Howard and this is not how things were meant to go,' Cohen told listeners. 'This was supposed to be a cleaner hand off. I'm kind of winging it'
Speculation that Stern (pictured last month) was axed from SiriusXM grew after last week after he postponed his return from a summer break to The Howard Stern Show. But he revealed during Monday's morning broadcast that he had been battling sickness
SiriusXM, in the years since Stern joined, has become home to top podcasts Call Her Daddy, SmartLess, Freakonomics Radio, Last Podcast on the Left, 99% Invisible, and Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend - and features personalities such as Trevor Noah, Andy Cohen, Kevin Hart and Stephen A. Smith.
But SiriusXM's subscriber base has been slowly contracting, with the company reporting 33 million paid subscribers in the second quarter of 2025, a net loss of 68,000 from the first quarter and 100,000 fewer than the same period in 2024.
It is battling a saturated satellite market and competition from free, ad-supported platforms like Spotify.
Stern extended his contract with SiriusXM twice, in 2010 and again in 2020 with a five-year, $500 million deal, Forbes reported. He's recently had newsy and intimate chats with Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen.
'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.'
Stern, who has liked to call himself the King of All Media, rose to national fame in the 1980s during his 20-year stint at the then-WXRK in New York.
At its peak, The Howard Stern Show was syndicated in 60 markets and drew over 20 million listeners.
Stern (pictured in 2018) joined what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. nearly 20 years ago and became one of the highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a game-changer for both the company and the industry
Stern was lured to satellite radio by the lucrative payday and a lack of censorship, following bruising indecency battles with the Federal Communications Commission and skittish radio executives.
His past on-air bits had included parading strippers through his New York studio and persuading the band then known as The Dixie Chicks to reveal intimate details about their sex lives.
His 1997 film Private Parts became a box office hit and offered a raw, humorous look at his rise to fame.
He has also authored several bestselling books and served as a judge on America's Got Talent from 2012 to 2015.
