Kristine Leahy

Kristine Leahy (born October 16, 1986) is an American television host and former sports reporter.

She is most known as a former host on NBC's American Ninja Warrior.

She was the former co-host and newswoman of Fox Sports 1's simulcast of The Herd with Colin Cowherd and was also a former anchor and reporter for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

She graduated from Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake, Illinois in 2005.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Boston University.

After college, Leahy got a job at the sports radio station WEEI in Boston.

After a two-year stint at WEEI, she transitioned to a position as an official reporter of the Boston Celtics and Celtics.com.

She turned that into a job at FOX Boston, where she covered all Boston area sports teams.

Leahy moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and covered a variety of different sports, most notably as a sideline reporter for Turner Sports' March Madness coverage.

She worked for a variety of CBS affiliated sports outlets, including the local CBS Los Angeles news.

Leahy then became the sideline reporter for American Ninja Warrior on NBC.

In September 2015, she took a job to join former ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd on his new show after his exodus to FOX.

Cowherd cited a lack of female voices in sports talk radio as a reason for Leahy's addition to the show, as well as Leahy's history of developing useful sources as a sports journalist.

On May 17, 2017, Leahy had a heated exchange with LaVar Ball on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.

Ball never faced in Leahy's direction for the whole interview, apparently trying to talk only with Colin Cowherd on the other side of the studio.

When Leahy asked Ball how many shoes he had already sold, he said, "Stay in your lane."

This led to an argument between Ball and Leahy about whether or not Big Baller Brand should market to both men and women.

When Leahy expressed that she believed Ball was disrespecting women, he responded by calling her a "hater" for her previous criticism of his parenting in suggesting that "his kids are afraid of him".

He also commented, "She scares me. I don't look over there because I'm scared of her. I'm thinking assault right now. Leave me alone."

Later that day on The Herd, Leahy issued a response about her argument with Ball, saying, "So he was upset at me for what I said there, and that's completely fine. But you can't come at me and disrespect me and not look me in the eye and threaten me. That's just not OK."

Ball, however, denied threatening her.

On May 19, 2017, radio host Charlemagne the God, responded to the incident by claiming Leahy is using the same energy that got Emmett Till killed.

On November 20, 2017, Leahy criticized CNN for inviting Ball on the air to discuss his feud with US President Donald Trump.

In 2018, Leahy began hosting Fair Game with Kristine Leahy on Fox Sports 1.

The show was cancelled in December 2019.

Leahy was born in Chicago, where she became interested in sports.