Hey now! Howard Stern and his team were reportedly behind recent rumors that his job is in jeopardy.
The allegedly “desperate hoax” was meant to make the “Howard Stern Show” host, 71, “relevant,” the Daily Mail reported Thursday.
“They’re desperately trying to make this thing go viral to try to boost his numbers for his return [in September],” an insider told the outlet.
“His numbers are down so low that they’re trying … to get people to tune in to see what he’s going to say about getting ‘fired’ from Sirius [XM],” the source added.
The deception was allegedly “something they came up with on a viral scale to get people to tune in again” since Stern’s numbers are “pathetic.”
The individual insisted the former “America’s Got Talent” judge, who will address the rumors during his Sept. 2 return, doesn’t have plans to retire “anytime soon.”
Stern, notably, began hosting his show in 1981 and has been with SiriusXM since 2006.
The Sun reported earlier this month that while SiriusXM planned to “make [Stern] an offer” when his contract ends in the fall, the company doesn’t “intend for him to take it.”
The outlet alleged, “Sirius and Stern are never going to meet on the money he is going to want. It’s no longer worth the investment. … There’s no way they can keep paying his salary.”
The Daily Mail claimed Tuesday that Stern plans to give his haters a “rude awakening” by announcing his renewed contract when he’s back on air next month.
Reps for Stern and SiriusXM did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
The Daily Mail previously reported that Jimmy Kimmel called Stern over the headlines, only for the jockey to claim, “First I’m hearing of it.”
Their alleged conversation came one month after Stephen Colbert’s shock cancellation after 10 seasons.
After news broke that “The Late Show” is coming to an end in May 2026, Kimmel insisted to Variety that “late-night is [not] dead” despite “network television declining.”
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host, 57, quipped, “It most certainly is not … a rotting corpse.”