When it comes to sports,
there's a show right here on
W USA nine that gets great.
One on one, interviews with the
leading figures on and off the field.
The show is in depth with Graham,
Benzinger and Graham joins
us now live ahead of his new
season debut on September 12.
Gram. Welcome back to great
day. How are you? Oh great, thanks,
appreciate you having me Kristen
absolutely alright so September 12th
marks your 12th season of this show.
Can you believe twelve seasons?
And I am a aging though with it
you see the receding hairline.
But thrilled the still be doing
it and have a good season on tap.
Well, you are hustling and that is why
this show has been on so long.
You interview some of the
biggest names that we all know
before we get into this season.
What's been some of your
favorite interviews? Oh gosh, so
many. I mean, we've done everything
from spending two days in Monaco
with Prince Albert to the the week
in the Bahamas with Sir Richard
Branson to the evening with.
Tom Hanks, two days in China
with the Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We were in the UK for the morning
with seven time Formula One champ
Lewis Hamilton and then did one in
India for the day with Virat Kohli,
who's somebody most people haven't heard of.
But it's the world's best cricket
player and the most famous person.
Arguably in a country with
1.4 billion people,
four times the size of the US.
So you know we don't spend like 5 or
10 minutes with these folks we spend
anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
So it's super fun to have
the opportunity to do
this. Yeah, this is like the
who's who of who's who. I mean,
it's everybody that you can think of
how without give your secrets away.
How in the world do you get all
this time with these top people harassment?
I probably walk a fine line between
being persistent and obnoxious.
I probably learned to better navigate
that path over the years, but you know,
rarely is it as easy as you know.
Sending an email or making a call is.
You well know you know Tom
Hanks took four years to book.
We did one with the golf
legend Jack Nicklaus,
where we spent three days over
four cities with him flying on
his private jet from Dallas
to Santa Barbara Deli to Cabo.
That took five years to book.
So it is for sure a process and very
conscious of my place in all of this,
which is nobody needs to do a taping with us,
so it becomes a very relational
kind of booking process is incredible.
So season 12 starts with Ice
Cube in the debut episode.
Amid stories how he nearly killed
somebody over $20 during her early years.
I mean, how do you get these guests
to discuss such a personal topics?
You know, we put
probably 100 hours of research
into each interview preceding this.
Sit down about between myself,
the researcher, our producers,
and that, just as you know,
helps a lot in coming up
with anecdotal type stories.
They haven't been asked
about a million times before,
which then makes them more comfortable
to perhaps give a little better access.
To need other otherwise.
Normally give and ice cube.
We talked at length about
his tough upbringing,
the obstacles he had to overcome
in getting out of that he credits
his parents with with a lot,
but also acknowledges there were
a couple moments that he could
have made some severe errors in
judgment that would have you know,
severely altered the course of his life.
They don't usually get to tell.
Is there any gas or activity that you have
turned down in your twelve seasons? So I
I've done some dumb stuff.
Travis Pastrana.
The action Sports star hoping on
the front of his motorcycle at
The MGM Arena in Vegas and did a
motorcycle backflip with me on it.
Celebrity stuntman Steve oh we
were taping one with him and
then I put kerosene in my mouth.
We blew like fireballs off of
his head so you know nobody ever
called me a genius that's for sure.
But the.
The one thing that I I did decide
against was we were taping one
with golf legend John Daly and he
wanted me to lay on the ground,
put a golf tee in my mouth and
drive a golf ball.
Basically off of my face and I'm like,
you know, I I know he's a talented golfer,
but if he messes up they're just kind
of varying degrees of bad in terms
of what's going to happen here and
already physically challenged enough
when it comes to on air appearance.
So I decided to politely decline.
That
one that was a genius decision
right there grab that's for sure.
There you go real quick.
Before I let you go,
I heard you were the only member of
the media allowed into a Presidential
Medal of Freedom ceremony.
And this was the day of the
capital siege. Is that right?
The the day after the day,
after taping an episode
with Annika Sorenstam,
that was both at the White House
and in your home state of Florida,
it was pre scheduled and it just
so happened that we were literally
the only media allowed in the room
that day as she was getting the
Presidential Medal of Freedom with.
Gary Player and the late Babe Zaharias and.
Super Strange Day, you know.
There were probably a few dozen family
and friends in the room and at one
point President Trump gets a standing
ovation for the great job he's doing.
You know,
in service to our country and this is
the day after the the Capitol breach
and it was just so eerie because.
From my observation,
it just seemed like any other
day at the White House.
How scared how scary,
but I mean the stories you have
to tell Graham are just amazing.
And I know you are hustling and that is
why twelve seasons has been on the air.
Congrats to you, we're looking
forward to another fun
season. No thanks a lot
Chris. Didn't appreciate you having me.
Absolutely alright.
September 12th in depth Grant
Benzinger premieres its 12th season.