After weeks of speculation that he’d been fired from Sirius XM for being “too woke,” Howard Stern is finally speaking out.
During an appearance on Sirius XM’s Andy Cohen Live Friday, October 10, the 71-year-old radio host laughed off viral reports claiming he’d been fired from the station for his political views.
“I was on vacation and the next thing I know I was in Stephen Colbert Land where I was being thrown off by the FCC somehow,” Stern joked to host Andy Cohen per Us Weekly. “I don’t know whatever it was or because I’m too woke. Too woke? I don’t even know what a woke is. What is woke?”
Stern continued with his trademark sarcasm, adding, “The fact that if I’m too woke — the world has turned upside down. I mean, holy s**t, the stuff I do and talk about, I don’t even know what that means. But you know what? If it means I’m awakened, God bless.” Cohen chimed in that being “woke” might just mean “you care about other people,” to which Stern agreed, saying, “Yeah, I mean, it’s suddenly not macho to give a f**k about anybody.”
The longtime broadcaster also used the opportunity to shut down the firing rumors once and for all. “If that works out, great. I love this company. I do,” he said of Sirius XM. “When I signed on, I think it was 200,000 subscribers. XM was killing us. And my dream, just like when I used to go to s****y radio stations, ‘Let’s f**king win.’ And now today, there’s this robust company, and I’m very proud of it. And if I do end up staying with this company, I’m going to take ownership of that.”
Stern’s comments come after reports in August suggested he’d been dropped from the satellite radio platform — speculation he later parodied by pretending Cohen had replaced him with a rebranded show called “Andy 100.” Sirius XM executive Scott Greenstein has since dismissed the rumors.
As for Colbert, he announced back in July that his show will conclude in May 2026, after the 2025–26 season. In a joint statement, CBS executives said, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026… We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time.” The network emphasized that this decision isn’t about performance or content but a financial move.
