A League of Their Own is a British sports-based comedy panel game that was first broadcast on Sky One (now Sky Max) on 11 March 2010. The show is currently hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and features Jamie Redknapp and Jill Scott as team captains and Micah Richards and Mo Gilligan as regular panellists.
Format
The show is a standard panel quiz show where two teams of three, the Red and Blue teams compete for points awarded in three rounds, to find the overall winning team by points total.
Round 1 involves both teams having to rank three different sportspersons according to a specific criterion. Round 2, Guest List, involves both teams having to guess the answers given by a sportsperson about his or her sport. Round 3, The Final Challenge, formerly known as the Right Guard Challenge, sees two members of each team have to answer questions for as long as the third team member can sustain a physical challenge in the studio.
Participants
The show was hosted for the first 13 series by James Corden. The Red Team is captained by former Liverpool and England footballer Jamie Redknapp, who was formerly joined by once regular panellist and stand-up comedian John Bishop. In series 5, Bishop was absent for several episodes due to his Sport Relief challenge, eventually leaving the show as a regular. Redknapp was joined on the red team by comedian Romesh Ranganathan for series 13 and 14. The Blue Team was captained by retired Lancashire and England cricketer Freddie Flintoff for the first 16 series. Flintoff was replaced by a series of guest captains starting from series 17. For the first four series Flintoff was joined by then Sky Sports F1 presenter Georgie Thompson. From series 5, comedian Jack Whitehall replaced Thompson as regular panellist on the blue team due to her F1 commitments. Whitehall himself left the show after series 12. Micah Richards became the blue team's regular panellist from series 17. Former England midfielder Jill Scott and comedian Mo Gilligan will join the show as the new blue team captain from the fortcoming series 18. Each episode the teams are supplemented by special guests.
Neither Corden, Redknapp nor Thompson had been regular features on a television panel show before. Corden was non-committal about whether the show marked a new direction for him as a television host, stating "I spend most of my time sitting in a room with my mates talking about sport anyway. To get paid to do such a thing will be great. I hope it will be a fun show and people will enjoy watching it." Redknapp said "I'm loving it, but it is nerve-wracking" and "the key is to try to have a bit of fun, but to remember that we're not comedians and can't compete with the professionals" referring to Bishop and Corden. Thompson said of the show that it was "the fun factor that I've been looking for" and represented an "exciting opportunity" in her career.
Due to Corden's commitments to his U.S. talk show The Late Late Show, the 14th series was presented, in part, by guest hosts. Corden's absence was extended into the 15th series due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This series was hosted mainly by Ranganathan with Flintoff and Redknapp hosting one episode apiece. Ranganathan was confirmed as the show's new permanent host starting from series 16.
Production
The show was created by Paul Brassey, a development producer at CPL Productions. The show was recorded in Pinewood Studios (BBC Elstree Centre from series 3, and Elstree Film Studios from series 12), being filmed on Mondays and Tuesdays in front of a live studio audience. The show was commissioned by Duncan Gray, with Gray, Danielle Lux and Murray Boland acting as Executive Producers. It was announced on 20 October 2009 that the pilot for the show would be hosted by Corden alongside team captains Redknapp and England cricketer Stuart Broad, although Broad was replaced in the line up by Flintoff by the time of the series 1 start. Executive producer Danielle Lux said it would be "an Olympic standard comedy show for anyone who loves their sport and a fun-filled half-hour for those who don't." The pilot was recorded on 24 October, and was due to be aired later in 2009. Sky One's promotion for the show included a TV advert featuring Corden mis-kicking a football, spoofing contemporary serious sportswear advertising campaigns, accompanied by the tagline "the new panel show that doesn't take sport too seriously".