Howard Stern trolled listeners on Monday with a joke that he was leaving his longtime SiriusXM radio show and would be replaced by Andy Cohen.
“The point is, none of this was real,” Stern said, who later confirmed he is staying on the show.
SiriusXM declined to comment.
The prank began at the top of the 7 a.m. time slot when Cohen told listeners that he was rebranding Stern’s channel as “Andy 100.”
“This is not the voice you probably wanted to hear, but it is I, Andy Cohen, and this is our first day broadcasting on Channel 100. Andy 100 is what it’s being referred to around Sirius for the last few days. I know that you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard, and this is not how things were meant to go,” he said.
Cohen continued: “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.”
The Bravo host went on to say that it was supposed to be “a cleaner handoff,” but “there’s nothing clean about it.”
“I’m kind of winging it,” Cohen said.
Multiple news outlets, including Variety and the Associated Press, reported that Stern was leaving the network.
But after a break, Stern came on air and revealed the elaborate prank. He thanked Cohen “for that little bit,” telling listeners that the news of his departure was a gag he set up with the Bravo host.
“That was all masterminded by me,” Stern said. “I said to Andy, would you cut a bit for us? And he immediately said yes. I said go as long as you want because the longer it goes on, the more people think it’s real. And Andy had no problem with that. He’s the best. … Love him for doing that. Thank you, Andy Cohen, and Andy 100.”
The longtime radio personality expressed frustrations over rumors in recent weeks that he had been fired from SiriusXM.
“I don’t even know what woke means, but we’ll get to that, because that’s the reason I was fired from Sirius,” he said, sarcastically.
Stern continued: “Everything you’ve been reading in the paper about me, about [co-host] Robin [Quivers], are completely false.”
Stern said last week he wasn’t on air because of a cold he’s been battling.
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