Howard Stern Calls Himself a "Scumbag" on Season Premiere While Dodging Layoff Questions

Howard Stern returned to SiriusXM this week and immediately made himself the punchline. The radio legend opened his season premiere by sarcastically calling himself a“scumbag,”telling listeners,“I can’t tell you how many different people have called me a scumbag”and adding,“If you think I’m a scumbag, you’re probably right.”It was his first real response to weeks of negative press about his workplace.

He didn’t stay quiet on everything, though. Stern denied a Sun report claiming staff were instructed not to speak to him at company parties, and he clarified that his wife Beth’s Daily Mail interview was about the HBO Max streaming deal, not a defense of him. He also explained that he gave up his Howard 101 channel because he“didn’t want the responsibility,”with Andy Cohen now running Radio Andy on that channel.

What Stern didn’t mention: the July layoffs that cut roughly a dozen staffers, or the ongoing lawsuit from former assistant Leslie Kuhn over a hostile work environment. Through it all, he’s still locked in with a new three-year SiriusXM deal and an HBO Max streaming agreement. So the question is, does the“scumbag”bit land as self-aware humor, or is it dodging the real story? Let us know what you think in the comments.