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Jesse Watters

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Not to be confused with Jesse Walters.

Jesse Watters
Watters in 2021
Born
Jesse Bailey Watters

(1978-07-09) July 9, 1978 (age 46)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
EducationTrinity College (BA)
OccupationPolitical commentator
Years active2004–present
Political partyConservative Party of New York State
Spouses
Noelle Inguagiato
​
​
(m. 2009; div. 2018)​
Emma DiGiovine
​
(m. 2019)​
Children4
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Jesse Bailey Watters (born July 9, 1978) is an American conservative[1] political commentator and television program host on the Fox News cable television network. He frequently appeared earlier in his media career on the political talk show The O'Reilly Factor with commentator/moderator Bill O'Reilly and was known for his man-on-the-street interviews, featured in his segment there of "Watters' World", which became its own show in 2015. In January 2017, Watters' World became weekly, and in April 2017, he became a co-host of the roundtable series The Five. Watters became host of his own program Jesse Watters Primetime on the Fox News Channel in January 2022.

In the literary field, he had his first book published, How I Saved the World by HarperCollins' of New York City and London. Broadside Books (a subsidiary imprint of HarperCollins) published his second work, Get It Together: Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe, in March 2024.

Early life and education

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Watters was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in several neighborhoods of the northwest city, and then briefly during high school to Long Island, New York.[2] He is the son of Stephen Hapgood Watters, a teacher, and his wife, child psychologist Anne Purvis, daughter of Morton Bailey, Jr., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.[3] His maternal great-grandfather was another Morton Bailey, publisher of the prominent longtime magazine The Saturday Evening Post; his maternal great-great-grandfather was Morton S. Bailey (1855–1922), a lawyer, politician, state senator and district judge in Colorado, later serving as an Associate Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court in the state capital of Denver, Colorado.

Watters' paternal grandfather, Franklin Benjamin Watters, was a cardiologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Newington, Connecticut, and a professor at the University of Connecticut Medical Dental School. Watters is also the nephew of longtime current New Hampshire state senator David H. Watters (born 1950), a Democrat, serving in the upper chamber of the state Senate of the bicameral General Court of New Hampshire (state legislature) at the New Hampshire State House, in the state capital town of Concord.[4] He has some Irish ancestry on his father's side. Watters is named after his mother's great-grandfather Jesse Andrew Burnett, an associate chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court in their state capital of Topeka, Kansas.[5][6][7][8]

Watters grew up in the Germantown neighborhood of Upper Northwest Philadelphia and then later moved to the East Falls neighborhood of the Lower Northwest of the city.[9] He attended the William Penn Charter School through junior year of secondary school, before moving again from Pennsylvania, far further northeast with his family to Long Island, New York state.[9] In 2001, he graduated from Trinity College in the state capital of Hartford, Connecticut, with a Bachelors of Arts academic degree, majoring in history.[10]

Career

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After graduation from Trinity College in Hartford, Watters began work as a production assistant at Fox News in New York City.[11] In 2003, he moved to the production staff of The O'Reilly Factor;[12] in 2004, Watters began to appear on air in segments of O'Reilly's show.[13]

On June 11, 2014, Watters debuted on the Fox News Channel show Outnumbered, later occasionally appearing as a guest co-host. On November 20, 2015, Watters debuted his own monthly Fox News program, Watters' World.[14] While Watters is characterized as an "ambush journalist",[15][16][17] Watters has said, "I try to make it enjoyable for the person I'm interviewing. We always come away from the interview all smiles, for the most part. And it's always fun to come back and look at the footage and say, 'Oh my gosh, what just happened?'"[9] In January 2017, Watters' World became a weekly show, airing Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET.[18][19]

In April 2017, Watters became a co-host of the roundtable series The Five.

In April 2021, HarperCollins announced the publication of Watters' new book How I Saved the World, which was published on July 6.[20] The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending July 10, 2021.[21]

After being one of several rotating fill-in hosts in the network's 7 p.m. time slot, it was announced on January 10, 2022 that Watters would become the permanent host of a new primetime show, titled Jesse Watters Primetime, which debuted on January 24, 2022.[22]

Watters' World program ended its run on January 15, 2022, while Watters continues to be a co-host of the continuing The Five.[23]

In June 2023, Fox News announced Watters as the permanent host of the network's 8 p.m. EST hour following the firing of controversial fellow conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.[24]

Personal life

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Watters is registered to vote as a member of the Conservative Party of New York State.[25] He married Noelle Inguagiato in 2009 and they have twin daughters.[26] Noelle filed for divorce in 2018 after Watters admitted to an affair with a producer on his show, Emma DiGiovine who was about 26 at the time. Watters claimed to have begun dating DiGiovine by letting the air out of her vehicle's tires so she would ask him for a ride.[26] In March 2019, Inguagiato and Watters' divorce was finalized. Watters announced his engagement to DiGiovine in August 2019, and they married that December. They had a son together in 2021,[27][28] followed by a daughter in April 2023.

Bibliography

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  • Watters, Jesse (2021). How I Saved the World. New York: Broadside Books. ISBN 978-0-06-304908-6. OCLC 1245249467.
  • Watters, Jesse (2024). Get It Together: Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe. New York: Broadside Books. ISBN 9780063252035

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Fox News to tape 'Faux Nation First Look,' unveiling its new digital service, in San Diego". The Baltimore Sun. October 24, 2018. Archived from the original on April 19, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  2. ^ Cook, John (April 24, 2009). "Ambushing Bill O'Reilly's Ambusher". Gawker.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  3. ^ "The Unstoppable Rise of Jesse Watters, "Golden Boy" of Trump's Favorite Network". October 4, 2017.
  4. ^ Voght, Kara (November 29, 2023). "It's open season in New Hampshire for Democrats not named Joe Biden". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 31, 2023.
  5. ^ "A Fox host railed about 'some guy's uncle' immigrating to the US. So we poked around his family tree - the Boston Globe". The Boston Globe.
  6. ^ "Anne P. Bailey is Future Bride of S. H. Watters". The New York Times. July 14, 1970.
  7. ^ "Miss Anne Purvis Bailey Wed to Stephen Hapgood Walters". The New York Times. August 30, 1970.
  8. ^ "Fox News host and Philly native Jesse Watters' liberal mom is his most-frequent critic". December 21, 2018.
  9. ^ a b c Gray, Ellen (December 19, 2015). "Fox News guy is our true-blue homey". Philadelphia Daily News. Archived from the original on June 6, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  10. ^ "Jesse Watters '01 Shares Stories and Advice from a Career in Television". Trinity College. May 4, 2015. Archived from the original on June 7, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  11. ^ "Biography, Jesse Watters". Fox News. New York City, New York. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  12. ^ Nick, Vadala (January 6, 2017). "Fox News expands Philly native Jesse Watters' "Watters" World' to weekly show". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pen in my by nsylvania. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  13. ^ DeSoto, Randy (April 19, 2016). "Now He's The Star Of "Watters" World' But First He Had To Earn O'Reilly's Trust". Western Journalism. Phoenix, Arizona. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  14. ^ Joyella, Mark (November 11, 2015). "Fox News to Debut Series of "Watters World" Specials". Adweek. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  15. ^ Bond, Paul (October 25, 2010). "Ambush-Journalist Confronts NPR CEO About Firing of Juan Williams". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 14, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  16. ^ "Jesse Watters Ambushes Mayor Who's Suing Residents Over Their Christmas Lights". Fox News. December 19, 2015. Archived from the original on January 27, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  17. ^ Stelter, Brian (April 16, 2009). "Gotcha TV: Crews Stalk Bill O'Reilly's Targets". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  18. ^ Kludt, Tom (January 5, 2017). "Jesse Watters: Bill O'Reilly sidekick gets own show at Fox News". CNN. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  19. ^ Tani, Maxwell (January 5, 2017). "Jesse m Watters Scores Weekly "Watters" World' Show on Fox News". Business Insider. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  20. ^ "How I Saved the World". HarperCollins. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  21. ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction - Best Sellers". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  22. ^ Johnson, Ted (January 10, 2022). "Jesse Watters Named Permanent Host Of Fox News' 7 PM Hour". Deadline. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  23. ^ "Final episode of "Watters" World' airs on Fox News Channel". UPI. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  24. ^ Weprin, Alex (June 26, 2023). "Fox News Overhauls Primetime Lineup in Post-Tucker Carlson Era". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
  25. ^ Resnick, Gideon (April 15, 2016). "Trump's Closest Confidants Can't Vote for Him". The Daily Beast.
  26. ^ a b Boggioni, Tom (March 11, 2018). "Wife of Fox News host Jesse Watters files for divorce after learning of his affair with producer". The Raw Story.
  27. ^ Watters, Jesse [@JesseBWatters] (August 25, 2019). "Emma and I would like to announce our engagement!" (Tweet). Retrieved August 26, 2019 – via Twitter.
  28. ^ Creitz, Charles (April 1, 2021). "'Watters' World' adds one: Jesse Watters and wife Emma welcome baby boy". Fox News. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
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