diff --git a/dist/images/kubectl-ko b/dist/images/kubectl-ko
index 7207549d6a2..540e345716a 100755
--- a/dist/images/kubectl-ko
+++ b/dist/images/kubectl-ko
@@ -493,7 +493,7 @@ xxctl(){
 checkLeader(){
   component="$1"; shift
   set +o pipefail
-  count=$(kubectl get ep ovn-$component -n $KUBE_OVN_NS -o yaml | grep ip | wc -l)
+  count=$(kubectl get ep ovn-$component -n $KUBE_OVN_NS -o yaml | grep "ip:" | wc -l)
   set -o pipefail
   if [ $count -eq 0 ]; then
     echo "no ovn-$component exists !!"