Radio icon Howard Stern, 71, faked out his fans Monday morning while confirming that “The Howard Stern Show” is coming back.

Following reports that Stern wasn’t returning to his show, he brought Andy Cohen on for a staged bit where he played into the rumors.

“I know you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard and this is not how things were meant to go,” Cohen 57, said, adding that it’s been a “surreal morning here.”

“There’s been a lot of talk about what’s going to happen with Howard’s deal. Is he fired? I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, except that he’s not here and I am,” Cohen continued. “Howard was supposed to start the show today, and this was supposed to be something of a cleaner handoff. There is nothing clean about it. Here we are. I’m kind of winging it.”

The “Real Housewives” producer claimed that he was taking over the channel with his new show, “Andy 100.”

“I can’t overstate what Howard has meant to this company and what he did for SiriusXM,” Cohen said. “He walked so that we could run. I can’t possibly fill his void.”

But Stern eventually came on air and confirmed the whole thing was a joke and that he’s returning to Sirius.

“I’m going to have to fill everyone in,” Stern said, explaining that he missed last week’s shows because he was sick, and not because he was still in contract negotiations.

“I was just getting so f–king annoyed with everyone writing me, asking me if I was OK because I’d been fired,” Stern vented.

“I’m minding my own business, enjoying my summer vacation,” he went on. “[A reporter] says that I’ve been fired for being too woke. In light of the Stephen Colbert firing — because the word on Stephen was that it was all part of this merger, and they fired Stephen because he’s too woke — the story then became ‘Howard Stern is fired because he’s too woke.’ I still don’t even know what that means.”

Stern added: “Then all of a sudden, I’m sitting home and everybody I know in my world, even peripherally, is writing me. ‘Are you OK, are you OK?. None of it is true, zero truth.”

“I’m very happy at Sirius,” Stern assured his listeners.

Stern debuted his SiriusXM show in January 2006, two years after he signed with the satellite radio broadcaster.

Last month, reports surfaced that the “Howard Stern Show” was nearing its end, with Stern’s $500 million contract expiring at the end of the year.

Stern promised to return to his regular schedule on Sept. 2 after his annual summer break to address the future of his show. However, he then told his listeners that the reveal was postponed until Sept. 8.

Last week, SiriusXM execs confirmed they were hopeful about renewing Stern’s contract.

“We’d love [for Stern] to stay. It certainly has to make sense, but we feel pretty good that we’ve done this before, and we’ll see where it goes,” said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s chief content officer and president, per Variety.

CEO Jennifer Witz added: “I think he’s been core to our platform for over 20 years, so I’m confident we’ll get to the right place.”