Howard Stern pranks listeners, fakes he’s leaving SiriusXM — he’s not

'I know that you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard, and this is not how things were meant to go,' producer and TV host Andy Cohen said to start off the prank.

Howard Stern gave listeners a shock on Monday morning when Andy Cohen took over his timeslot and claimed the channel was now called “Andy 100.”

The stunt came after weeks of promos that promised a big reveal, following swirling speculation that Stern’s show would be cancelled. “The tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, cancelled,” one promo video said. “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, said 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 executive producer went on to say that he was confident that Stern would land a position on another platform soon, before the popular radio host joined him on air and thanked him for going along with the prank.

Stern, 71, took over and confirmed that he would be continuing to work with SiriusXM after rumours began that he hadn’t been renewed.

“I was just getting so f—ing annoyed with everyone writing me, asking me if I was OK because I’d been fired,” Stern began.