An insider has blown the lid on the chaos at SiriusXM after Howard Stern’s shocking prank that his show had been canceled.
The host was set to make his return Monday despite the rumors, but fans were greeted by Andy Cohen suggesting he was taking over from the 71-year-old.
Then Stern stormed back on air to deny he had been axed from the hit station, infuriating listeners with the brutal prank.
Now, a source has revealed to the Daily Mail that chaos has set in at The Howard Stern Show, with staff fearing for their jobs.
A source told the Daily Mail: ‘People are panicking. Many employees who work there have a family to take care of, have kids, have a mortgage payment and this is their main source of income.
‘Fear has sunk in that next week, next month, they might not have a job. It’s not fair to a lot of them.
‘And, truthfully, getting laid off has been in the back of their minds for quite some time.’
Howard Stern addressed rumors of his SiriusXM show being cancelled on Monday, stating: ‘Everything you’ve been reading in the paper about me or about Robin is completely false’
A source told the Daily Mail that The Howard Stern staffers are ‘panicking’ over losing their job
The source went on to say that ‘people are talking about leaving’.
‘People there, they’re all terrified because they’re all on [non-disclosure agreements]. They all signed papers that say they’re not allowed to open their mouths and talk about anything,’ they said.
‘Employees can get fired instantly and lose everything, especially if Stern found out that they broke their confidentiality agreement.
‘There’s a ton of people there whose lives would drastically change based on Stern firing on a whim.’
A separate source told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that Stern has deployed an Air Force commando to catch the mole who has been leaking private details of what has been going on inside SiriusXM’s New York City studios.
Executive producer Gary Dell’Abate warned staffers that someone had been giving out information and now, staffers are pointing fingers at each other, the source said.
The inquisition has been handed to producer Memet Walker – a former U.S. Air Force airman trained in interrogation tactics. He denied accusations from colleagues that he is the informer himself.
Weighing in on Monday’s episode, Steve Grillo, a former staffer at The Howard Stern Show, told the Daily Mail that he had ‘predicted’ the supposed big reveal – which ended up not involving any shocking news at all.
Steve Grillo, a former staffer at Stern’s show, has weighed in on Monday’s ‘big announcement,’ telling the Daily Mail exclusively that he believed it to be the ‘hoax of the century’
The Gorilla Parts author, who interned in the ’90s, called his former boss a ‘fallen star’ and said that the ‘hoax’ was ‘a pathetic way to get people to tune in’
‘I really couldn’t watch it, to be honest with you. I started to watch it and I said, ‘I can’t,” the 52-year-old New Yorker said.
‘It was just a pathetic way to get people to tune in and then give them nothing.
‘It was the biggest douche bag, hoax of the century. It just goes to show how far he’s fallen from greatness… he looks like a fallen star.
‘Howard has duped the audience once again with such a huge scandal that he was getting fired when no one really cared. All he did was open his mouth and nobody was interested.
‘The only way he can get listeners these days is by saying he’s getting fired.’
Grillo, who released a book earlier this year about interning at the show for seven years in the ’90s, suggested that Stern should bring in some Hollywood hitters with ‘a big mouth’ or controversial stars like Andrew Dice Clay or Russell Brand to help boost ratings.
Unsure of why Stern selected Cohen to help him pull off his prank, Grillo said that the Bravo producer ‘would be the worst replacement for him’ since ‘it would isolate even more of his audience because Andy Cohen definitely has an LGBTQ following where I would say most of Howard’s audience is not exactly hardcore LGBTQ listeners’.
‘I know you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard and this is not how things were meant to go,’ Bravo producer Andy Cohen told listeners on Monday’s show. ‘This was supposed to be a cleaner hand off. I’m kind of winging it’
Stern was spotted in the Hamptons on August 28 with wife Beth Stern (pictured) amid firing rumors – even though a source told the Daily Mail that it was a ‘desperate hoax’ to get ratings
A separate source told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that Stern has deployed an Air Force commando to catch the staff mole who has been leaking private details of what has been going on inside SiriusXM’s New York City studios (pictured are staff members)
The Gorilla Parts author added that Stern ‘has such talented staff members there,’ who ‘should all be working on some other show where they can express their true talent’.
‘Howard has the ability and the genius to find people that are extremely loyal and exploit them. He has an extremely loyal staff – everybody was always loyal to him.
‘But there were people that he finds, people that are diehard loyal people, and he brings them into the fold and he makes them famous,’ Grillo explained, ‘and then he’s able to keep them and give them enough money just to survive and eat but never enough money to have a house like he does.’
Grillo previously commented on the show’s ‘downfall’ and claimed that Stern lost many listeners when he shared his political beliefs about now-President Donald Trump in September 2024.
Grillo said: ‘People listened to whatever he said, and those people were the hard-working people that wanted a change in this country and made him famous and made him rich.
‘And he turned his back on them by saying, ‘If you like a certain political person, I don’t want you listening to my show.’ That’s why he’s got 125,000 listeners.’
The radio personality faced criticism from fans and celebrities for becoming too ‘woke’ and, in 2023, admitted that being ‘woke’ was a compliment.
‘I think that if old Howard Stern could go and jump in the time machine, he would punch him right in the face,’ Grillo told the Daily Mail.
Stern addressed the rumors about the future of the show on September 8. Speaking to co-host Robin Quivers, he said: ‘Everything you’ve been reading in the paper about me or about Robin is completely false.’
Amid all the fake news, Stern revealed that he had ‘heard from a lot of companies who want the show,’ but said he’s ‘very happy’ at SiriusXM
The radio personality teased his big announcement weeks ago, but had to push back the date from September 2 to the 8th due to him getting sick
‘I’ve been thinking about retiring. Now I can’t, because then they’ll say I got pushed out. So, I’ll be back. Here’s the truth: SiriusXM and my team have been talking about how we go forward in the future.
‘They’ve approached me, they’ve sat down with me, like they normally do, and they’re fantastic. We’ve been talking.’
Amid all the fake news, Stern revealed that he had ‘heard from a lot of companies who want the show,’ but said he’s ‘very happy’ at SiriusXM.
He is currently on a mammoth $500 million five-year contract that expires at the end of the year. He began his nearly 20-year run with the satellite radio channel in 2006.
The Daily Mail previously reported that the cancelation news was just a ‘publicity stunt’ and ‘desperate hoax’ designed to boost listener numbers.
A source had told the Daily Mail that his September launch was going to be ‘like a mea culpa to get the audience that he alienated back to listening to him’.
The source added: ‘Stern could’ve retired 10 years ago. He’s not planning on retiring any time soon.’
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Stern and SiriusXM for comment.
