The TV ratings for Shannon Sharpe's debut on First Take are in and Stephen A. Smith is pleased. The one-hour Labor Day edition of First Take featuring Shannon Sharpe drew 727,000 television viewers per a report by SportsTVRatings. As of this writing, the viewership numbers for Sharpe's second day on the show on Tuesday are not available. The Tuesday viewership number will likely show a viewership trend for Sharpe's appearances on the show as the episode was two hours long and featured longer debates.

Stephen A. Smith took to X (formerly Twitter) to celebrate the high viewership number.

“Just wanted to take a moment to give some love to my man @ShannonSharpe. Why? Because I’m his first day in the job, @FirstTake did 727K Viewers. It’s our 2nd-Highest rated show of the year, so ya still got some climbing to do, my brother! Just kidding. Welcome aboard bro! Let’s keep bringing it.”

Shannon Sharpe quote tweeted the tweet and responded, “Wait until @KingJames aka GOAT JAMES drops FIDDY on someone’s head. We’ll do a milli. Bring pepto cause I’mma make you sick.”

Sharpe has a great point about the viewership drawing power of him and Smith debating about topics centering around LeBron James. The YouTube video of the two debating about whether James faced more scrutiny over his career than Micahel Jordan due to the advent of social media has 1.1 million views on YouTube.

Also of note is the carriage dispute between Disney and cable distributor Spectrum. ESPN's linear cable channels aren't available in 14 million homes due to the dispute. So, viewership numbers will be a bit lower for all games and shows broadcast on Disney platforms. The debut of Shannon Sharpe could've gotten even higher viewership than the 727,000 it received.

Sharpe's next appearance on the show will be September 11th and 12th following Week 1 of the NFL season, which is sure to be a treat.