Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast has become the hottest spot for celebrities to do interviews. Sharpe’s laidback approach has attracted many celebrity guests like comedian Katt Williams and actress Amanda Seales.
But the Seales interview went left after she made accusations against him after her interview. Seales felt as if Sharpe was being unfair to her during their interview and felt that he pushed back too much on her opinion, a charge Sharpe is denying.
Sharpe offered his own thoughts on the Seales interview on Cam Newton‘s podcast “Funky Friday.”
“I want credibility. I want people to be able to share their story without me interrupting,” Sharpe said to Newton while recalling his approach to the viral January Katt Williams interview. “I think, for the most part, that people tuned in to watch my pod because they want to hear what the guests have to say. I let the guest speak.”
But Sharpe also thinks the public nitpicks his interviews too much.
“People say, ‘Well, you pushed back on Amanda Seales,’” Sharpe began. “All I said was, ‘Amanda, did you think being a child correcting a teacher in front of the students … could it have been something else other than racism?’ That’s all. And people lost it, ‘Well, you didn’t push back!’”
Sharpe reminded people that he basically took the same approach with his interview with Mo’nique during their interview, but unlike Seales, her response was different.
“Mo’Nique said Oprah asked her to go read for a role. She went and read for the role, Oprah ended up getting the role. I said, ‘Mo, did you ever think they were looking for a heavy-set Black woman, and it wasn’t because the industry was against you?’ She said, ‘My brother, I didn’t think about it like that.’”
Sharpe thinks some people may be trying to stop his momentum and the popularity he is receiving from his show.
“But see, they don’t mention that,” he said. “I’ve got to try to do something to try to quail this momentum that Shannon, this wave that Shannon is riding, so any way I can try to undercut him or to make him [look bad].
“I’m not a journalist. I never told anybody I was a journalist. I said I’m a conversationalist. But what people are upset about is that, for some reason, people come to me, and I don’t look at them with judgy eyes. I have no pre-determined notion or preconceived notions, and they open up to me. That’s what they’re upset about.”
Sharpe says later in the interview he’s sorry Seales felt the way she did after their interview.
“I don’t have anything bad to say about Amanda,” he said.
After his controversial interview with Katt Williams, Sharpe’s numbers increased dramatically. Now he has over 3 million subscribers and 40 million views. He is also a co-host on ESPN’s “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith. (But Sharpe has been accused of being a lap dog at times for Smith, especially recently.)
Sharpe has faced criticism from fans across social media for how he handled the Caitlin Clark situation, with some believing he’s taking her side more than Angel Reese.
Still, numbers don’t lie, and fans are tuning in to his show.
