Fans of “The Howard Stern Show” were left reeling Monday morning by a prank that led them to believe the radio program’s host had been replaced — and some news outlets seemingly fell for it, too.
In the weeks leading up to Monday’s show, Howard Stern had teased that he would address the rumors surrounding his future on SiriusXM live on the air. He originally promised to do so on Tuesday, Sept. 2, but Stern ended up pushing back his show’s return to Sept. 8. That delay only further stoked certain listeners’ concerns about Stern’s behind-the-scenes conversations with XM leadership.
At the top of his Monday show, Stern playfully seized upon those concerns. As listeners tuned in to hear the return of “The Howard Stern Show,” they were instead greeted by the voice of fellow SiriusXM host and personality Andy Cohen, who shakily told fans, “Good morning, everybody. This is, I know, not the voice that you expected to hear.” Cohen went on to imply that Stern’s SiriusXM channel had been renamed “Andy 100.”
“This is not how things were meant to go,” Cohen said. “There’s been a lot of talk about what’s gonna happen with Howard. Is he fired? I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, except that he’s not here and I am.”
The bit was convincing enough to some that one crying listener later revealed that they’d canceled their SiriusXM subscription in response to Cohen’s intro. The Associated Press, meanwhile, ran an initial report Monday buying into the prank.
It was not long, however, before Stern brought an end to the ruse. Around 15 minutes after Cohen kicked things off, Stern was back sitting behind his SiriusXM microphone again and thanking Cohen for agreeing to participate in the prank. Stern later explained that he’d pushed back his show’s originally planned Sept. 2 return not because he had been fired by SiriusXM, but because he’d gotten sick at the end of his summer vacation and had briefly lost his voice.
The broadcasting legend has been at the center of a storm of questions over the past few months, all of which have suggested that his time at SiriusXM may be coming to an end. These rumors have swirled while SiriusXM has continued to make high-profile deals with other, well-known broadcasting personalities, including Cohen, “Call Me Daddy” host Alex Cooper and Stephen A. Smith.
While he did make his return Monday, though, Stern did not announce that he has signed a new contract with SiriusXM. As of now, his current deal with the broadcasting corporation is set to expire at the end of 2025.
“Here’s the truth: SiriusXM and my team have been talking about how we go forward in the future,” Stern told viewers Monday. “They’ve approached me, they’ve sat down with me like they normally do, and they’re fantastic.”
Stern first joined back in 2006 in a deal that made him, at that time, one of radio’s most well-paid broadcasters. “The Howard Stern Show” has remained a cornerstone of SiriusXM’s programming lineup in the decades since then, even as it has brought podcasts like “Call Her Daddy” and “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” into the fold as well. Over the years, Stern has extended his contract with SiriusXM twice: Once in 2010 and again in 2020, the latter of which turned out to be a five-year, $500 million deal.
SiriusXM’s subscriber count has been on a slight decline. In the second quarter of 2025, the company reported a subscriber base of 33 million paid listeners, which marked a year-to-year loss of around 100,000 subscribers.
“What pisses me off is now I can’t leave,” Stern told his concerned listeners Monday morning. “I’ve been thinking about retiring. Now I can’t, because then they’ll say I got pushed out. So, I’ll be back.”
