Howard Stern is American Idol producers’ top pick to replace Simon Cowell, who is leaving the show at the end of this season.
A source connected to “Idol” said, “It’s one of the few shows that could compete with Stern’s $100 million-a-year Sirius contract, and ‘Idol’ bosses think he’d be even nastier than Simon.
Sources say that, despite what he says on-air, Stern is not ready to leave Sirius and “this is a ploy to make Sirius pay up and keep him on his huge contract.”
Stern recently said, somewhat cryptically, “I was approached by a major TV network to take over a TV show and leave here and do that next year — and I did turn it down . . . I’m not even sure if I want to be working. I’m waiting to see what happens.”
Now, a video clip obtained by TMZ casts some serious doubt that the shock-jock will be sitting in Simon’s seat.
View video below: