Get to know Jesse Watters, who is filling the most desired time slot at Fox News that was formerly occupied by Tucker Carlson.
On June 26, the network announced that Watters has been tapped to replace Carlson in the primetime 8 p.m. hour following the controversial host’s abrupt departure from Fox News in April.
Watters is no stranger to the network — his first gig at Fox News was in 2003. He has had various roles across several of its programs, conducting interviews and delivering political commentary in the two decades that followed.
Among his most notable stints and segments include Watters’ World, co-hostingThe Five and leading Jesse Watters Primetime in the 7 p.m. time slot, which will now be filled with Laura Ingraham’s The Ingraham Angle (which previously aired weeknights at 10 p.m.).
The news that Jesse Watters Primetime is moving to 8 o’clock comes two months after Carlson and the network quietly “agreed to part ways.” Fox News added in a statement, “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
That network added that Carlson’s last program was just two days before the announcement was made, and Fox News Tonight started airing the next evening as an interim show. It was helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until the network crafted a new plan for primetime.
Here’s everything to know about Watters.
Watters is a Pennsylvania native born on July 9, 1978, and raised in Philadelphia. His father, Stephen Hapgood Watters, was a teacher and his mother, Anne Purvis was a child psychologist.
Growing up, he attended William Penn Charter School, the oldest Quaker school in the world. Both of Watters’ parents worked as directors at the school.
Watters and his family relocated to Long Island, New York, when his parents accepted new educational director jobs. He attended another prestigious Quaker school, the Friends Academy.
Upon graduating from high school, Watters attended Trinity College, a liberal arts school in Hartford, Connecticut, where he majored in history. In the summer, he held an internship at the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, he quickly learned that the path wasn’t for him.
“Yeah, I thought I was going to make a lot of money because all of my friends in college were going to go to Wall Street. And I tried it and failed miserably because I couldn’t do basic arithmetic,” Watters joked during an interview on Sirius XM’s Insight channel.
Although Watters was a history major, he pursued a career in media and landed his first job as a production assistant at Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor in 2003.
On the aforementioned radio show, Watters recalled his first gig on the job. He was tasked to head down to Alabama to confront a judge over a questionable ruling — a daunting request for the young Watters, who had “never been south of the Mason-Dixon line” at the time.
Despite his voice that was too “high-pitched,” O’Reilly took a liking to Watters. He was given “Man on the Streets” bits and ambush-type interviews — known as “Watters’ World” — making a name for himself early in his career.
Following the success of Watters’ World — a program that eventually expanded to include one-on-one interviews and roundtable chats — Watters’ brand expanded beyond weeknights at 8 p.m. He often worked as a fill-in co-host on The Five.
Watters also co-hosted Outnumbered and even filled in for O’Reilly himself. In an attempt to produce more original weekend content skewed to younger audiences, his “Watters’ World” segment become its own show in November 2015 and ran weekly in January 2017.
In April 2017, he became a permanent co-host of The Five.
In January 2022, Watters landed a solo hosting gig with the eponymous show Jesse Watters Primetime. The hour-long program was comprised of an opening segment and covered several news topics presented in a populist format.
With the absence of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Watters’ show was selected in June 2023 to move to the 8 p.m. ET time slot, widely considered the most desirable.
“Within 24 hours of Jesse Watters voluntarily reporting to the Chief of Human Resources in November 2017 that he was in a consensual relationship with a woman on his staff, management met with both parties and a decision was made for the woman to be transferred to work on another program on the network where she currently remains,” Fox News said in a statement at the time.
In August 2019, Watters proposed to DiGiovine and they tied the knot later that December. In April 2022, Watters recalled during an episode of The Five a controversial tactic he enacted on his then-girlfriend to get her attention.
The Fox News host said he once “let the air out of” now-wife DiGiovine’s tires when he “was trying to get [her] to date” him. “She couldn’t go anywhere. She needed a lift… She hopped right in the car.”
Emma captioned a gallery of wedding snapshots on their first anniversary on Instagram, “Married the love of my life one year ago today… And what a year it’s been.”
Watters is the father of four children, welcoming two from each of his marriages. During his 10-year marriage to Inguagiato, they had twin daughters Sophie Watters and Ellie Watters, on November 2011.
Following Watters marriage to DiGiovine, they welcomed son Jesse Jr. in April 2021. In April 2023, the couple welcomed their second baby together, daughter Georgina Post.
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