The NY Post reported last week that NBC was grooming Howard Stern to replace Jimmy Fallon on Late Night should Fallon replace Leno on The Tonight Show, but Stern debunked the Post’s story this week on his satellite radio show. “First of all, what an insult,†Stern began. “Like, all the years of my career. I’m like the biggest guy in radio. I’ve done film. I’ve done television … They act like I’m some kind of fucking beginner or something … Maybe if I’m really nice to NBC, they’ll let me take over Carson Daly’s show at like 2 o’clock in the morning.†Stern continued, “I was asking some of the [NBC] executives when I was down there doing AGT, and I was like ‘You guys don’t respect Jay at all, do you?’ They go, ‘We’re not firing him!’ That’s what they said to me, so I don’t know how any of this is true. I don’t know. I want to say ‘no comment.’ I want to keep it going.â€
Stern seemed like an odd choice given that Late Night has always been a young franchise, and he’s just a few years younger than Jay Leno, so this story turning out to not be true isn’t a huge shocker.