Howard Stern Reveals That He Missed A 2017 Show Due To A Cancer Scare

Hollywood Reporter - On Wednesday, May 10, 2017, for the first time in memory, Howard Stern abruptly canceled that day’s show. His listeners, a famously loyal subset of SiriusXM’s 36 million subscribers who’ve made Stern a part of their lives since he rose to prominence in the ’80s as radio’s boundary-pushing “shock jock,” were understandably alarmed. Reddit lit up with crackpot theories, and a handful of dogged reporters tracked down the host’s elderly parents to check up on him.

By Monday, the self-described king of all media was back on the air, poking fun at the hullaballoo, as many hoped he would. It was just the flu, he told his audience: “Why is it such a big deal that I took a fucking day off?”

Turns out, he was lying through his teeth.

On the morning in question, Stern wasn’t home with a fever or runny nose; he was being carted into surgery. For the better part of the previous year, he’d been shuttling between appointments as doctors monitored a low white blood cell count revealed during a routine checkup and, later, discovered a growth on his kidney. The chance that it was cancerous: 90 percent.

So, I know that most people are probably saying who gives a fuck about Howard missing one show two years ago. But, if you’re familiar with the Stern Show you know that it was a big deal at the the time when he inexplicably missed that show in 2017.

The reason it was a big deal was because Howard doesn’t just miss shows. Sure, he goes dark for weeks during the year, but to call the staff the night before or the morning of and tell them that there is no show that day was extremely out of character for him. The thing about the Stern Show is that if Howard isn’t there then there isn’t a show. There are no fill-ins. There are no guest hosts. It’s Howard or nothing.

I suggest you read the whole article, but if you see the excerpt above it talks about Reddit theories that swirled around, and I still vividly remember everybody assuming that it was something with his parents or that something else was seriously wrong because it was so unlike Howard for this to go down.

Anyway, it’s great to know what finally happened and even GREATER to know that he doesn’t have cancer.

P.S. – I did laugh at some people giving him shit that he didn’t bring it up on the show, but rather to the Hollywood Reporter. Again, if you’re a fan of Howard, you know that it’s almost like a rule of his to bring everything up on the air that happens to him or his staff.

Here’s some Beetlejuice: