The Herd with Colin Cowherd

The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with celebrities, sports analysts and sports figures.

The Herd with Colin Cowherd
GenreSports talk
Running time3 hours
Country of originUnited States
Home stationESPN Radio (2004–2015)
Fox Sports Radio (2015–present)
SyndicatesPremiere Networks
TV adaptationsESPNU (2008–2011, 2012–2015)
ESPNews (2011–2012)
Fox Sports 1 (2015–present)
StarringColin Cowherd
Joy Taylor
Doug Gottlieb (fill in)
Nick Wright (fill in)
Recording studioLos Angeles, California
Original releaseMarch 29, 2004 (ESPN), September 8, 2015 (Fox Sports Radio) – present
WebsiteThe Herd with Colin Cowherd
iHeartRadio channel

The program was originally carried by ESPN Radio and simulcast most recently on ESPNU until July 24, 2015 as a result of Cowherd's exit from the network. After Cowherd joined Fox Sports, The Herd moved to the Premiere Networks-distributed Fox Sports Radio network, airing from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET. Its television simulcast also moved to FS1.[1] Fox Sports 1 airs a daily highlight show, The Best Thing I Herd, while a weekly highlight show, The Best Thing I Herd This Week, is posted on the program's YouTube channel.

Logo of the show when it was on ESPN

During its run on ESPN, Cowherd was joined by on-air by producers Vincent Kates, David Fisch and Tom Wassell. ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates during the show were performed by Dan Davis. On his March 5, 2010 show, Cowherd announced that Amanda Gifford would be leaving The Herd to become a "suit". Additionally, the show was cut back one hour, airing three hours, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

On April 25, 2018, co-host Kristine Leahy announced her departure from the show to host her own program on FS1. Her final episode was April 26, 2018. Following her departure, Joy Taylor became the full-time co-host and news correspondent for the program.

Regular guests
Current
Former

Controversies
  • Eddie Guerrero's Death – In November 2005, Cowherd was criticized by former ESPN ombudsman, George Solomon for his treatment of the death of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Colin was quoted as saying "he passed away doing steroids", implying that Guerrero's death had been caused by steroid use. According to Dr. Kathryn Berg, the assistant chief medical examiner for Hennepin County in Minnesota, the autopsy showed that Guerrero died from a hardening and narrowing of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart.[2]
  • Using Un-attributed Material – In March 2006, Cowherd was criticized for using a joke on his show that was posted on the "M Zone", a University of Michigan fan blog without crediting it.[3] Cowherd later apologized on-air and gave the M Zone full credit for the material. The M Zone response: "He was very cool about everything. This incident is now resolved and over."
  • The Herd Knocks Blog Offline – On April 5, 2007, listeners of The Herd knocked The Big Lead blog site offline. Cowherd directed his listeners to access the web site home page simultaneously (emulating a denial of service attack), which resulted in a massive increase in traffic. The blog site's servers were not capable of handling so many users at one time so the site was knocked off-line for approximately 96 hours. ESPN's new Ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber wrote an article sharing her (negative) opinion of Cowherd's actions. Schreiber contacted Traug Keller, a Senior Vice President at ESPN Radio, and Keller indicated that Cowherd would face no disciplinary action for the stunt, because there had been no policy against such a tactic at the time. To prevent this from happening again, Keller instituted a zero tolerance policy of such activities in the future.[4]
  • Sean Taylor's Murder – Cowherd was criticized for comments made regarding the circumstances surrounding Sean Taylor's death. On November 28, 2007, one day after Taylor's home invasion murder, Cowherd claimed that Taylor's past had brought this upon himself, and that Redskins fans who mourned him were not "grown ups." Cowherd stated about Taylor's turnaround; "Well, yeah, just because you clean the rug doesn't mean you got everything out. Sometimes you've got stains, stuff so deep it never ever leaves." Taylor's death was later found to be the result of a botched robbery, and the robbers hadn't known Taylor was home when they entered.[5]
  • Lavar Ball – Cowherd was criticized for how he handled Lavar Ball during an interview on May 17, 2017. While interviewing Ball, Kristine Leahy chimed in with her own thoughts and opinions. Ball never looked at her, telling her, without eye contact, to "stay in her lane." Cowherd continued the interview, not scolding him for his behavior, which the media later deemed sexist and misogynistic. The next episode, Cowherd and Leahy spoke of the incident during one of the first segments, with Cowherd stating he didn't say anything because Leahy is a strong woman who can defend herself and that if Ball did anything deemed inappropriate, he would have ended the interview immediately. Leahy agreed with Cowherd's assessment. Ball returned to the show June 12, 2018, with a now-departed Leahy replaced by Joy Taylor this time.

Guest hosts

While on ESPN the regular fill-ins for Cowherd were Dave Rothenberg, Ryan Ruocco, Jorge Sedano, Linda Cohn, Adnan Virk, and Ryen Russillo. The fill-ins during his FOX tenure are Nick Wright and Doug Gottlieb. Former women's golfer turned broadcaster Holly Sonders fill in for Taylor.

Awards

On December 19, 2005, Sports Illustrated named Cowherd "Radio Personality of the Year". Cowherd was lauded by columnist Richard Deitch for providing "an engaging mix of entertainment, information, and reportage.[6]

References
  1. "Colin Cowherd officially signs with Fox; how the network will use him". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  2. Solomon, George (December 27, 2005). "Radio aims to be provocative, fair". ESPN. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
  3. Solomon, George (April 6, 2006). "Vitale still signature face, voice of ESPN hoops". ESPN.com.
  4. Schreiber, Le Anne (April 8, 2007). "Cowherd's 'attack' on blog: 'Zero tolerance'". ESPN. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
  5. Schreiber, Le Anne (December 11, 2007). "Proportion, perspective missing ingredients in news coverage". ESPN. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  6. Deitch, Richard (December 19, 2007). "2005 Media Awards". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
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