Lee Cruse and Hayley Harmon are returning to TV. Find out where to watch them.
Lee Cruse and Hayley Harmon, the former hosts of WLEX 18’s “Live with Lee and Hayley” will reunite for a new talk show on ABC 36, the pair have announced.
The new show will air on weekdays and debut Monday, Feb. 17, the station said. It will feature celebrity and musical guests, touring comedians, current event features, comic sketches and human-interest stories.
The announcement comes six months after Cruse was fired from LEX 18. Harmon left the station in August on her own terms.
Cruse said in a video announcement that ABC 36 (WTVQ) reached out to him the day he was fired from LEX 18.
“They want to win championships and that’s what I’m going to help them do, starting day 1,” Cruse said in a mock press conference video he posted to Vimeo.
Harmon appeared halfway through the video when Cruse jokingly said he was “auditioning girls tonight” to be his co-host. Cruse told his former WLEX 18 co-host that “I know it’s you, they know it’s you. It’s inevitable.”
“Same deal as last time,” Cruse told Harmon. “You get half my money, I pay for your lunch, dinner and shoes.”
The video opening of the “Lee and Hayley Show” was also released on Vimeo by Cruse. The video shows the duo around various destinations in Kentucky and Tennessee.
“Lee and I are thrilled to be staying in the Bluegrass with our new program,” Harmon said in a statement. “We’re going to be back on the air doing what we love for the fans we adore.”
Cruse will also do reporting for various ABC 36 newscasts and special features, according to the station.
Chris Aldridge, general manager at WTVQ said he is delighted to add Cruse and Harmon to the ABC 36.
“Bringing their tremendous talent and immense viewer-appeal to our station is going to be a game-changer in this market,” he added.
Cruse was fired from WLEX in May following comments he made two weeks prior that the station called inappropriate.
On May 9 during his “Live with Lee and Hayley” show, he was reading a script about a BBC radio broadcaster who was fired for using a chimpanzee to represent Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s newborn baby. Cruse laughed and said, “this is my new favorite disc jockey.” The next day on the show, he apologized and called his comment an “egregious error.”
Following a flood of complaints and the Lexington-Fayette County NAACP branch calling for the station to take action, Cruse was suspended for a week after his remarks. WLEX 18 made the decision to fire Cruse on May 22.
Cruse, who worked at the Lexington TV station for more than 20 years, said in a May episode of Kentucky Sports Radio’s “The Funkhouser Situation” podcast that his firing seemed like “overkill.”
Many viewers also thought the same. More than 22,000 people signed a Change.org petition for WLEX 18 to rehire Cruse. Many others commented on social media that they would boycott the station.
Cruse’s former co-host, Hayley Harmon, left the station in August. She said it had been “really hard” for her since Cruse’s termination. Harmon said at the time of Cruse’s firing that she was “devastated” by the decision and she stood by Cruse.
Harmon worked at the Lexington NBC affiliate for five years, beginning as a “Sunrise” anchor alongside Chris Goodman and Tom Ackerman.
“Live with Lee & Hayley” debuted in 2017 and Cruse and Harmon moved from mornings to a 4 p.m. newscast last year.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Lee Cruse and Hayley Harmon are returning to TV. Find out where to watch them.."