Jesse Watters: 6 Things to Know About Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Replacement
Jesse Watters Primetime takes over Tucker Carlson‘s coveted 8 pm slot on Fox News tonight (Monday, July 17).
Watters was officially announced as Carlson’s successor last month, with his Primetime show moving out of its previous 7 pm slot to 8 pm. Carlson was let go from the news network on April 24; he has since been hosting a semi-regular show on his Twitter account.
As Jesse Watters Primetime moves into its new timeslot tonight, get to know a little more about the news host.
He Has Family Ties to Politics and Publishing
Watters was born and raised in Philadelphia by his parents, Stephen Watters, a teacher, and Anne Purvis, a psychologist. Watters maternal great-grandfather was Morton Bailey, publisher of The Saturday Evening Post. His great-great-grandfather was politician Morton S. Bailey and his mother’s great-grandfather, Jesse Andrew Burnett, was an associate chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.
He Got His Break On The O’Reilly Factor
Watters started his career at Fox News as a production assistant in 2003 before moving on to the production staff of The O’Reilly Factor, the long-running show hosted by Bill O’Reilly. In 2004, Watters began appearing on air in the segment Watters’ World during O’Reilly’s show — the segment became its own show in 2015.
He went on to become a co-host on The Five in 2017 before landing his own show, Jesse Watters Primetime, in 2022.
He Is Known For ‘Ambush’ Journalism
Watters has been involved in a number of controversies over the years, particularly for his style of ‘ambush’ journalism. One particular incident came in 2009 when he followed journalist Amanda Terkel for two hours in her car to confront her about negative comments she’d made about O’Reilly.
This moment came back up seven years later when The Huffington Post‘s Ryan Grim approached Watters at a journalists’ reception to ask him to apologize to Terkel. The confrontation ended up in a shoving match, with Watters grabbing Grim’s phone and throwing it on the floor.
He Joined The Five and Immediately Got In Trouble
In April 2017, Watters joined the Fox News panel show The Five as a co-host and immediately got into hot water for making what many deemed as an inappropriate comment about Ivanka Trump.
Commenting on footage of Trump speaking at a panel about female entrepreneurship, Watters said, “I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone” as he made a gesture some took as representing a phallic symbol.
Watters later denied his comment was sexual, saying he was merely commenting on Ivanka’s voice. Following the backlash, Watters didn’t appear on the show for the next two episodes.
He Got Divorced In 2019
Watters married Noelle Inguagiato in 2009, and the couple had twin daughters. However, in 2018, Watters admitted to having an affair with a producer on his show, Emma DiGiovine, which led to Inguagiato filing for divorce, which was finalized in 2019.
Months after the divorce, Watters and DiGiovine got married in December 2019. The couple have two children together, a son (born 2021) and a daughter (born 2023).
He Has Been Accused of Being A Bully
Watters is certainly a divisive character whose style of journalism has been described as “punching down” and “bullying.”
“This is somebody who is that fun guy in high school who stood there and quietly made fun of the nerds and the rest of us stood around and kind of laughed with him,” former Fox News commentator Julie Roginsky told NPR. “Most of us outgrew that and decided that was not the right way to go in life.”
“He can be very affable,” added Joe Muto, who worked with Watters at Fox, but said that his success relied on “punching down… His comedy has a mean streak to it, kind of a bullying aspect to it.”
Jesse Watters Primetime, Monday, 8 pm, Fox News
