diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/nvidia/sagemaker/tts.py b/src/pipecat/services/nvidia/sagemaker/tts.py
index 46ae10d4a..e6737a5f9 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/nvidia/sagemaker/tts.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/nvidia/sagemaker/tts.py
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ class NvidiaSageMakerHTTPTTSService(TTSService):
         """
         logger.debug(f"{self}: Generating TTS [{text}]")
 
-        text = sanitize_text_for_tts(text)
+        text = text.strip()
         if not text or not any(c.isalnum() for c in text):
             return