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Howard Stern isn’t going anywhere.
When fans tuned in today to The Howard Stern Show, anticipating the radio host to finally address the rumors about his contract, they were surprised when it wasn’t Stern’s voice that filled the airwaves. Instead, Andy Cohen took the microphone, explaining that he is now taking over Stern’s time slot, but stressing, “this is not how things were meant to go.”
“I know that you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard, and this is not how things were meant to go. 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 handoff. There is nothing clean about it. Here we are. I’m kind of winging it.”
But much to the delight of Stern fans everywhere, it was all one big joke. Stern is here to stay, he said after returning to his show 20 minutes in. “I’m going to have to fill everyone in,” he said, explaining that he missed last week’s show not because he was still in contract negotiations, but because he was sick. “I was just getting so fucking annoyed with everyone writing me, asking me if I was OK because I’d been fired.
“I’m minding my own business, enjoying my summer vacation,” he said. “[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.’ I still don’t even know what that means.
“Then all of a sudden, I’m sitting home and everybody I know in my world, even peripherally, is writing me. ‘Are you OK, are you OK?’” he continued. “None of it is true, zero truth.
“What pisses me off is that now I can’t leave. I’ve been thinking about retiring. Now I can’t.”
While he didn’t go into details about his contract and any renegotiations, he said he’s been talking to SiriusXM about “how we go forward in the future.”
“I’m very happy at Sirius,” he said. “Nothing was happening.”
The Howard Stern Show has been on air for decades. The show gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on radio from 1986 to 2005 before it moved over to SiriusXM in 2006.
Rumors about Stern’s possible retirement started in early August, when theDaily Mailreported that his “long-running SiriusXM radio show is in jeopardy as the end of his $500 million five-year contract looms.” One source told the outlet that Stern was considering signing a one- or two-year contract, while another said they would officially be parting ways.The Sun, meanwhile, reported that the show was set to end due to SiriusXM and Stern’s inability to come to terms on a new contract
This led to speculation all across the media landscape that Stern was indeed on the verge of ending his radio career. President Donald Trump even voiced his opinion. “Howard Stern is a name I haven’t heard,” he said. “I used to do his show. We used to have fun, but I haven’t heard that name in a long time. What happened? He got terminated? You know when he went down? When he endorsed Hillary Clinton, he lost his audience. People said, ‘Give me a break.’ He went down when he endorsed Hillary Clinton.”
Throughout it all, Stern himself remained quiet as he enjoyed his summer hiatus. But on Aug. 15, Stern’s Instagram posted a promo that leaned into the drama. “Fired? Retiring? Canceled? Bye-Bye Booey?” the post asked. “Howard Stern will speak on Tuesday, September 2.” It was followed up with numerous memes, including the triple Spider-Man one, that continued to tease the issue out.
However, hours before the planned Sept. 2 announcement, The Howard Stern Show revealed that the shock jock would instead return to the airwaves on Sept. 8. No reason was given for the delay, but rumors circulated that the contract renewal hadn’t been completed yet.
Sirius XM Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein appeared to confirm the speculation at a conference last week (via Variety): “We’d love [for Stern] to stay. It certainly has to make sense, but we feel pretty good that we’ve done this before, and we’ll see where it goes.”
