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Most people find a partner before they think about having a baby — but former “Bachelor” contestant Kristy Katzmann is doing the process backward. “Labor of Love” (Fridays at 9 p.m. on Fox) is a new reality series hosted by Kristin Davis (“Sex in the City”) that follows Katzmann as she dates and challenges a …
Most people find a partner before they think about having a baby — but former “Bachelor” contestant Kristy Katzmann is doing the process backward.
“Labor of Love” (Fridays at 9 p.m. on Fox) is a new reality series hosted by Kristin Davis (“Sex in the City”) that follows Katzmann as she dates and challenges a group of 15 hopeful baby daddies, eliminating them along the way until she whittles the group down to the one she wants.
“When this [show] came about for me, I had just turned 40,” Katzmann, now 41, tells The Post. “I had just gotten out of a relationship and I was sort of faced with trying to navigate dating knowing that I still wanted to start a family, and obviously not having time on my side.”
In the eight-episode show, Katzmann puts the men through various challenges (called “drills”) to test their nurturing side. At the end of each episode, she singles out which men she wants to stay on and get to know, and which ones she’s sending away.
“In recent years, what I’m looking for in a man has [become synonymous with] what I’m looking for in the father of my children. I can’t really separate those two anymore,” she says. “For me, what that really came down to was I wanted a hands-on dad. A man who was accomplished, secure and giving, and really ready to step up and be an equal partner.”
To search for these qualities and bring them to the surface, one drill finds the potential dads debating kids — both to test their smarts and to see how they interact with children. Another challenge involves camping, as Katzmann observes how protective the men might be when something unexpected happens in the woods.
“A lot of times in the drills, I learned valuable information about things not necessarily related to the drill,” she says.
For instance, during the camping excursion, she overheard one man talk about how he’s not used to roughing it in the great outdoors — because he’s used to staying at the Ritz.
“I’d love to stay at the Ritz, that sounds great!” she says. “But is that really practical when you’re talking about having a family? That was kind of a really good piece of information for me to have. If someone is stuck on that lifestyle, there’s not a lot of flexibility there.”
She still values romance in a relationship, she says, but her emphasis on looking for a dad who would be hands-on made her eliminate some surprising choices who otherwise seemed like catches.
“Dating with [kids] in mind is going to be different than dating for the sake of dating, so I think you have to be really clear on that and stick to it. You’ll see along the way I eliminate men that I would never eliminate if this was just a dating show.”
That turned out to be the main difference between her experience on “The Bachelor” in 2007 and her experience this year on “Labor of Love” at age 40.
“I still wanted love and romance, but it wasn’t my No. 1 priority, whereas on ‘The Bachelor,’ it was all about the romance and fairy tale, with the assumption that [kids] would come later. So there was definitely a priority shift between the two [shows]. Here, this was right in front of my face. It really was my No. 1 driver in everything that I was doing, so that’s a huge difference.”
Katzmann is aware that the premise of the show might raise eyebrows — but she says she wants viewers to watch before they judge.
“I really just want to encourage people to have an open mind to this and really understand what we’re trying to do here before they make assumptions. I think this is a really special show, a really modern story, and this is a situation a lot of women are facing today. I hope people can really see that in this process and see not only how sincere I am, but how sincere all of the men are in this journey, too.”
