When Shannon Sharpe announced he would be taking a temporary leave from his duties with ESPN following a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who claims that the former NFL star sexually assaulted, harassed, and committed battery against her, it remained unclear what that meant for his Nightcap and Club Shay Shay podcasts. Sharpe has not appeared on ESPN since mid-April. However, he has continued to release podcast episodes with Nightcap co-host Chad Ochocinco.
Meanwhile, on Friday night’s edition of The Nightcap, Sharpe announced that the upcoming NSFW Tour, which the nightly podcast had scheduled for eight cities across the United States, would be postponed.
“We’ve decided to postpone the Nightcap tour,” Sharpe said. “We look forward to seeing you guys in the summer of 2026. It’s going to be even bigger, even better. But Ocho and I have come to the conclusion that this is the best thing as of right now, was to postpone the tour.”
Originally, the tour was scheduled to kick off on June 13 in Baltimore, before visiting Philadelphia on June 14. There were four dates scheduled in July hitting the Charlotte, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City markets. The tour was scheduled to wrap up the eight-city tour with two dates in August in Chicago and Detroit.
“Some of you guys that have already gotten your tickets, you’ve probably received the e-mails and further instructions,” said Sharpe. “I want to thank you for your support.”
Notably, the short announcement led off Friday’s episode, and no reasons for the postponement of the tour were discussed by either Sharpe or co-host Ochocinco.
Earlier, the former Bengals receiver stated last week on an episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von that he’s going to be a part of Nightcap and support whatever Sharpe decides regarding the future of the highly successful podcast.
“Unc asked me to be a part of Nightcap, and I’m going to ride that wave because he asked me to come on,” said Ochocinco. “I’m not jumping ship because of his personal stuff. You handle whatever you need to handle, I’ll always be here. I’m going to be here. If the ship goes down, b***h I’m going down with it.”
Currently, the Nightcap podcast, which debuted in 2023 under Sharpe’s Shay Shay Media group, ranks in the top 30 of YouTube’s latest weekly top podcast rankings.
So far, the former NFL tight end has not spoken out in detail about the allegations in the lawsuit. Instead, he announced a temporary leave from ESPN to devote more time to his family while addressing what he referred to as the “false and disruptive” accusations. Nevertheless, Ochocinco has been unwavering in his support.
“I’m going to let Unc do what he needs to do. We’re going to keep on filming. Going to keep on trucking. We’ll keep our head down,” Ochocinco says. “He knows what he needs to do on his end, and I’m going to make sure I take care of my end and do what I need to do and show up. That’s it.”
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