Kristine Leahys new Fox Sports show is nothing like The Herd
Kristine Leahy is stepping out of the studio and into an idyllic Santa Monica, Calif., home for her newest TV endeavor, “Fair Game.”
Premiering today on FS1, the series will focus less on hot takes and more on intimate conversations with athletes and Hollywood stars.
“We just thought, people aren’t really watching highlight shows anymore on sports channels, and then there’s a lot of debate and hot-take kind of conversation shows, and we wanted to do something different,” Leahy, 32, tells The Post of “Fair Game,” which was developed “six or seven months ago” with IMG.
“I think viewers are looking for something a little different from the rest of the sports lineup. We wanted to do these [authentic] conversations, and it’s something I’m really passionate about. Just kind of my natural curiosity.”
With former NFL running back Ray Rice, Clippers coach Doc Rivers, Olympic gold-medalist Nastia Liukin and actor Josh Duhamel among the program’s first guests, Leahy wants to show viewers the new series is a far cry from “The Herd with Colin Cowherd.” She left “The Herd” earlier this year following the show’s inception in September 2015.
“Colin will make his point of view and it’s a very, very strong opinion,” Leahy said. “But it’s kind of him just talking, and I was more of the person that would chime in occasionally, so [“Fair Game”] is really mine.
“You’ll still hear my opinions and you’ll hear the opinions of our guests, but we won’t be talking about the hot takes of the day. We’ll be really kind of going in-depth on the things that make them tick, what they feel passionate about, or different struggles in their life, success stories they’ve had. It’s not like a hard-hitting news show at all.”
Leahy says she hasn’t heard from Cowherd, 54, in “quite a while.” Her last episode with Cowherd was in late April. Leahy said that Cowherd is welcome to appear on the new show, but it’s another story for a certain big-mouthed, NBA father.
“I think the premise of this show is to be really authentic and to have very meaningful conversations. If he is ever at a point in his life where he’s willing to do that and also apologize, I would,” Leahy says of LaVar Ball.
During an appearance on “The Herd” in the spring of 2017, Ball got into a heated exchange with Leahy, dismissively telling the Fox Sports star to “stay in your lane.”
Leahy would prefer to keep the focus on Ball’s sons, rather than the Big Baller patriarch.
“We’re having not just athletes on our show, we’re having musicians and actors and all different types of people,” she shares.
Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook is one of Leahy’s dream guest stars — “I support anybody who is just who they are and doesn’t apologize for it” — as is rapper Cardi B.
“I think Cardi B is herself, she is unapologetically herself, which I really appreciate, so it kind of matches with this show,” Leahy said. “She’s also a woman who’s killing it in a predominantly man’s field, and I am a woman hosting a sports show in a predominantly man’s field.”
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