Stephen A Smith blasts podcast hosts for rude off-camera behavior after he recorded three-hour show with them

Stephen A. Smith has gone scorched earth at podcast hosts Cari Champion and Jemele Hill after giving them three hours of his time for a recent episode.

Smith was a high-profile guest for the Flagrant and Funny podcast last week, appearing with his two former ESPN colleagues for a wide-ranging discussion.

But it was the hosts' off-air behavior that left Smith disappointed, after he revealed they didn't thank him, and that he overheard disparaging remarks from the pair after they had finished recording. 

'I sat down for three hours,' Smith revealed on his own, self-titled podcast. 'Three hours with these two ladies, Jemele Hill and Cari Champion. I didn't know what they were going to ask, other than about the NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists), and of course the Jasmine Crocketts and Kamala Harris' of the world.

'There was no prep, there was nothing orchestrated. I rolled up in there and one of the first things I did after saying hello, was making sure it was very, very clear to them, I've got nothing but time. And yet I see them, post-show, talking about interpretations, what people are insinuating, comments emanating from people about them.

'I even heard Cari Champion say, "I don't know if it benefited us". Really? Ladies and gentlemen, when I showed up at that show the other night, they had 9,000 subscribers and their largest video was at about 35,000, of any show they had done.

'Once I sat down with them, they've picked up over 30,000 subscribers, they've had over 1 million views - 500,000 over YouTube - but Cari Champion is saying she doesn't know if it did them any good. A simple thank you would have sufficed.'

Champion has since posted a video to her Instagram page - recorded on her beach vacation - in which she offered her thanks to Smith for appearing on the show.

Hill, meanwhile, has not yet referenced the First Take host's criticism of their behavior.

Smith also took umbrage with the podcast's decision to edit some of his comments, claiming that he now wants a video copy of every interview he does going forward.

'I'm not doing any more interviews on YouTube without folks agreeing to make sure that it is completely unedited and that the comment section remains open and that I get a video copy of the interviews that I do,' he said. 'I don't think that's unreasonable to ask for.

'I don't think that I should sit down for 3 hours feeling I was promised - my team was promised - an unedited version that would be put out there to the masses, and that I'm deprived of that. 

'I don't appreciate that. I want that interview, Cari, Jemele, and to your team. I want that interview in its entirety put up for everybody to see, showing what was cut out.'

The interview with ESPN star Smith, which was published in two separate parts on YouTube, now has close to a million views on the platform, with the next nearest clip only racking up 40,000.