Boris Kodjoe, Nicole Ari Parker Preview The Boris and Nicole Show

Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker Preview 'The Boris and Nicole Show' : 'We'll Be Naked Most of the Time'

Kodjoe and Parker – who fell in love on set and have been married for 10 years – open "a new chapter" as co-hosts of a daytime talk show

Lanford Beard

Published on July 6, 2015 07:30AM EDT

Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker are costars again – only this time they’re not necessarily sticking to any script.

The husband and wife, who fell in love while starring together on Showtime’s Soul Food, are launching The Boris and Nicole Show Monday on Fox.

“We have a great professional relationship because that’s how we met,” Parker tells PEOPLE. “So I think the beginning [of our show’s foundation] is all there, but we’re going to learn as we go and have great guests and be thrown for a loop and recover. We’re ready for it all.”

Kodjoe notes that debuting the show just weeks after he and Parker celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary feels like “a new chapter in our relationship. It’s a new chapter in our careers. We’re super excited. We’re ready for the challenge.”

Though they’re not the first famous spouses to co-host a TV series (Kelly Ripa and Mark Conseuelos, Cher and Sonny are just a few who’ve led the way), Parker and Kodjoe are breaking ground by putting themselves – and their dynamic as partners – front and center five days a week.

“We’re using this platform as authentically as we can. We are who we are,” says Kodjoe, 42. “We’re talking about everything that we’re passionate about, whether it’s current affairs or parenting, love, relationships, special needs.”

That will “absolutely” include their experiences raising daughter Sophie, who was diagnosed with spina bifida the day after she was born in 2005 (Parker proudly reports that the 10-year-old is now a “budding ballerina”), and their son Nicholas, 8½, who is having a ball on the soccer pitch.

“The great thing about the daytime format is, you win when you are yourself,” says Parker, 44.

When addressing divisive or controversial topics, Boris and Nicole will engage experts, and the show will also welcome celebrities for dishy sit-downs. On the second count, Parker is confident she and her husband will be able to go deeper than many other daytime hosts because “there’s a trust factor.”

“We’re always on the other side of the couch,” she explains. “Our perspectives now have changed. The advantage we have is that we know what it’s like to be the celebrity … so we’re going to put a special effort into coming up with topics that are fresh. We’re there to give them a place to celebrate them and give them a place to share.”

Of course, with the couple’s move to the other side comes a greater exposure to personal scrutiny than either of them confronted while acting in scripted projects.

“If somebody doesn’t like a movie I’ve done or a TV show we’ve done, you can kind of walk away, shake it off,” says Parker. “This is a whole new arena. You’re being yourself, but you’re also opening your real self up to a lot of criticism. If someone says, ‘I don’t like the sound of her voice,’ I might cry.”

That said, it’s safe to say nobody will be crying over Parker’s creative approach to maintaining viewers’ interest: “If the ratings drop, my husband will just take his shirt off.”

She also teases, “I’ve gotten my abs [in shape]. The muffin [top] is shrinking. I might take my shirt off, too.”

Kodjoe chimes in, “We’ll be naked most of the time.”