We're only in the third week of January, but this year has been Shannon Sharpe's best year ever.
Just three days into the new year, Sharp resigned. Club Shay Shay, Katt Williams interview. Nearly three hours of candid (and often venomous) revelations made the interview the most talked about media story of the month. With over 54 million views, the interview shows little sign of slowing down.
flat reaction The interview went viral, and victims of Williams' abuse, including Kevin Hart and Cedric the Entertainer, responded with applause. Dave Chappelle said some things about Williams on stage last week.. Other podcasters are tried and failed They captured the magic by having Williams as a guest to keep the party going.
In an exclusive interview with its rootsSharp said he had no idea what he was thinking when his interview with Williams began. He didn't have a chance to make the usual introductions before Williams spewed vitriol for about 30 minutes. The most painful part of the 2 hour and 46 minute interview.
“I thought he would be up and running in a minute or two,” Sharp said. “He's going for 30 minutes. Now, I have to make a decision. Should I cut him out and go back to a normal schedule, or should I let him go? I let him go.” .”
Sharp said he went into the interview expecting 10 or 15 million views. He had hoped to at least top his April 2022 interview with Steve Harvey, which had 8 million views at the time, but since then. Reached 10 million views – No doubt a result of Harvey being one of Williams' main targets in the interview.
When Sharp and Williams finished speaking, Sharp looked at producer Christian “CJ” Dear and saw him shaking his head.
“I said, 'Did I say something wrong?'” Sharp said. “He said it would break the Internet. I said, 'I really think so. '?' he said. He said, “They're going to cover this all of 2024. Shannon, you don't realize what you just did.''
Dear was right. The interview received her 2.5 million views on her first day. The next day it was 14 million.
“I called CJ and he said, 'I told Shannon,'” Sharp said. “I asked him, 'How many plays do you think it will get?'” He said, “50.” I said 50 years. what?50 a million!?”
Mr. Sharp said he asked Mr. Williams a year before this interview occurred, making it a case study in timing. branding And the means by which we consume content are constantly evolving, particularly shattering the “traditional wisdom” that people don't keep listening to long video content.
As a result, Mr. Sharp has received negative criticism from “traditional” journalists over his loose interview style.
Mr. Sharp insisted that he is not trying to compare himself to traditional interviewers or journalists, but considers himself a “conversationalist.”
“What I've found is that if you make people feel safe, they're going to share things that they probably haven't shared or haven't shared in a long time,” he said. “So listeners are probably hearing it for the first time.”
“I think there are a lot of people who are saying, ‘We should have done this,’ or ‘We should have done that,’ and they’re not angry. [Williams] Go ahead… They’re mad that it’s not on their platform even though it has about 55 million views. ”
Sharp, no stranger to viral moments on TV, seems genuinely awed by the feedback he's still receiving for this episode.
“People stop me everywhere…people who don't think they're watching 'Club Shay Shay,'” he said. “I'm talking about older white men and older white women coming up and saying, 'I just want to say thank you.'
Sharp said he can only find two other interview-style videos that have more views than Williams'. But he insists there is no pressure to replicate that success.
“I tell people I'm not going to be Michael Jackson. This is my 'Thriller,'” he said. “Off the Wall” was great, and “Bad” was great, but what he wanted was another “thriller.” That's unusual. ”
“I'm going to do the best job I can and do other great interviews, but I'm not going to corner another guest or make them feel bad by creating another topic that does this same thing. . This happened naturally… It was the perfect storm.”