Howard Stern gave listeners a shock on Monday morning when Andy Cohen took over his timeslot and claimed the channel was now referred to as “Andy 100.”
The stunt got here after weeks of promos that promised a giant reveal, following swirling hypothesis that Stern’s present can be cancelled. “The tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, cancelled,” one promo video mentioned. “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, mentioned 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 government producer went on to say that he was assured that Stern would land a place on one other platform quickly, earlier than the favored radio host joined him on air and thanked him for going together with the prank.
Stern, 71, took over and confirmed that he can be persevering with to work with SiriusXM after rumours started that he hadn’t been renewed.
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“I was just getting so f—ing annoyed with everyone writing me, asking me if I was OK because I’d been fired,” Stern started.
“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 mentioned 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 present on Monday, Stern additionally hinted that “one of the positive things” concerning the state of affairs was listening to different corporations’ curiosity in The Howard Stern Show.
“I’m very happy at Sirius,” Stern mentioned earlier than praising SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz.
Witz had beforehand launched her personal assertion 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 time break final week. His present instructed listeners that he would tackle the subject of his SiriusXM deal when he returned on Sept. 2, however he postponed the present’s return till Sept. 8.
Stern didn’t share if he had signed a brand new contract with SiriusXM as his present deal expires on the finish 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 becoming a member of what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in 2006 made him one of many highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a sport changer for each the corporate and the nascent satellite tv for pc radio business.
Stern prolonged his contract with SiriusXM twice earlier than, in 2010 and once more 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 material officer Scott Greenstein instructed The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “Nobody will ever replace them. We would never try to replace them.”
— With information from The Associated Press
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