Howard Stern successfully pranked viewers and a few media outlets on Monday during his return to his SiriusXM show after a summer hiatus.
Following media speculation that he was exiting his longtime show, and even President Donald Trump chiming in on the prospect, Stern’s show started with Andy Cohen.
“This is, I know, not the voice that you expected to hear,” Cohen said, who said that the channel was now Andy 100. “This is not how things were meant to go.” He even teased a guest, Patti LuPone.
Stern then returned to the show about 15 minutes later, saying, “That was all masterminded by me.”
He noted some of the media coverage and listener reaction.
Over the summer, some media outlets reported that Stern was on the verge of exiting his show, one of the mainstays of SiriusXM. One reporter, Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice, even asked President Donald Trump about Stern’s exit, even though no announcement had been made.
On his Monday show, Stern recounted how, during the summer, he started hearing rumors that he had been fired, and even ran audio reports and commentary that it had happened.
“All of the sudden, I’m sitting home, and everybody I know in my world, even peripherally, is writing me, ‘Are you OK?’ Now I didn’t know any of this. My wife told me, and I said to my wife, ‘Why are you telling me all this?’ I wish I had never know because I got really upset.”
He added, “What pisses me off is now I can’t leave. I’ve been thinking about retiring. Now I can’t, because they’ll say I got pushed out, so I’ll be back. F— you these rumors.”
Stern had said that he would return on Sept. 2, but that was pushed back a week, adding to the speculation. But he said that he has had a “cold from hell” that he could not shake. He said that the cold has returned and “I am going to try and push through the week.”
Stern signed a five-year contract in 2020. No new agreement has been announced.
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