Howie Mandel was on the receiving end of a mic drop moment when guest UFC president Dana White stormed off camera while appearing on a recent podcast episode, in a stunt many have called “staged.”
Mandel interviews celebrities and notable figures on his podcast Howie Mandel Does Stuff, which he co-hosts with his daughter Jackelyn Shultz. Previous guests have included Gary Vee, Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., and Spice Girl Mel B.
His most recent episode, number 164, got off to a graceless start when White proclaimed that he was “done” with podcasts, before leaving the set only moments into recording in a moment that has gone viral online.
A minute into the episode, White thanked the host for such a positive introduction, which shared several of his accolades, followed by the statement: “I am so f****** tired of doing podcasts, I am literally done with them. I’m done doing any more podcasts.”
The guest then removed his headphones and walked out of the studio while the hosts and fellow guest, Ginger Billy, looked on silently in shock.
At the time this article was published, the full podcast episode on YouTube had been viewed 101,000 times.
The episode is just over one hour long, with White only featured for around one minute.
Snippets of the awkward interaction have also taken social media by storm, causing an online frenzy. A clip on X, formerly Twitter, shared by the account @HappyPunch has gone viral and clocked up 9.2 million views by app users.
Onlookers were quick to chime in on the uncomfortable interaction, with many calling it out as “staged” and a tactic used by Mandel to secure more views on his content.
Comparatively, at present, the YouTube video is in line with other clips, with four prior videos dating as far back as a month ago ranging from 8,100 views to 125,000 views.
Commenting on the X video, one observer stated: “Howie bout to get more views on this one than all the others combined.”
“Staged. When [was the] last time Howie had a trending clip,” a fellow user blasted.
A second echoed this: “Honestly at this point I would not even be surprised to find out this is staged.”
Remarks about the clip being rigged continued to be added to the feed of doubt with: “Well, that… was awkward or staged?” and “This seems fake. Why even show up if this is how he felt?”
A confused spectator also asked: “Why did he even show up then?”
Another theorist declared: “Just a publicity stunt. None of yall knew about this podcast before he did it.”
Newsweek has contacted Howie Mandel’s publicist and ESPN on behalf of UFC via email to request a comment from Dana White.