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Carlos Watson (journalist)

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Carlos Watson
Watson in 2013
Born (1969-09-29) September 29, 1969 (age 55)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Alma materHarvard University (BA)
Stanford Law School (JD)
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, journalist, television host
Known for
  • • The Carlos Watson Show
  • • Black Women OWN the Conversation
  • • Defining Moments With OZY
  • • Take On America
  • • Breaking Big
  • • Third Rail With OZY
  • • The Contenders
Board member ofOZY, NPR

Carlos Watson (born September 29, 1969) is an American entrepreneur, journalist, and television host. A former contributor on MSNBC and anchor on CNN, he founded media company OZY in 2013, and has hosted numerous OZY TV shows for networks including Hulu, Amazon Prime, PBS, BBC Worldwide, A&E, History and the Oprah Winfrey Network,[1] the latter of which won an Emmy in 2020 for Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis. He has also hosted multiple podcasts for OZY, and is one of the youngest members on the board at NPR.

As an entrepreneur, Watson co-founded Achieva College Prep Service in 2002, which he later sold to the Washington Post/Kaplan.[2] As co-founder and CEO of OZY, he has led the company to raise over $70 million from investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, and has launched partnerships with multiple legacy companies such as A+E Networks, iHeart Media and the BBC.

As an interviewer, Watson has earned praise for his ability to persuade high-profile guests to open up about a wide range of topics on camera.[3] Throughout his career he has interviewed individuals including presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; political figures Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger; business leaders Bill Gates and Mark Cuban; public intellectuals Ta-Nehisi Coates and Malcolm Gladwell; and figures from sports and popular culture including Alex Rodriguez, Naomi Campbell, John Legend, Sean Combs and Heidi Klum.

Watson is the host of The Carlos Watson Show, a daily interview show on YouTube, which launched in August 2020.[4]

In 2021, Watson attracted public controversy after a New York Times article exposed that Ozy Media COO Samir Rao possibly committed wire and securities fraud.


Early life and education

Watson was born and raised in Miami, Florida, one of four siblings born to Jamaican parents. He often describes himself as both the son and grandson of teachers. As a working-class family, they often struggled financially throughout his youth, regularly needing help from food stamps. Being labeled a problem child early in life, Carlos was asked to leave kindergarten in 1974, but entered first grade the next year.[5][6] He attended Ransom Everglades School in Miami, then Harvard University. During high school and college he wrote more than 50 articles for the Miami Herald and the Detroit Free Press, and worked for Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and then-Senator Bob Graham.

Watson graduated with honors with a degree in government from Harvard University in 1991. He then worked as Chief of Staff and Campaign Manager for Florida Representative Daryl Jones, and managed Bill Clinton’s 1992 Election Day effort in Miami-Dade County, Florida.[6] He subsequently attended Stanford Law School,[7] where he was editor of the Stanford Law Review and president of the Stanford Law School Student Government.[6][8]

Career

Business career

After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1995, Watson began work at strategic consulting firm McKinsey & Company.[6] After two years at McKinsey, Watson left to co-found Achieva College Prep Service based in San Mateo, California.[6] Watson sold Achieva in 2002 to competitor Kaplan, Inc.[6][9] He later worked as the Global Head of Education Investment Banking for Goldman Sachs.

Journalism and television career

Watson began a television career in 2002 with guest appearances on Fox News and Court TV as a political analyst.[6] On Labor Day, 2003, he hosted a highly rated prime-time interview show on CNBC featuring Howard Dean, Joe Montana, and Eva Longoria. Watson hosted a second interview show and was offered his own continuing interview show on CNBC, before joining CNN as a regular newscast contributor.

For two years, he appeared regularly as a political commentator on CNN, most notably covering the 2004 presidential election with Wolf Blitzer, Larry King and Jeff Greenfield. Also while at CNN, Watson wrote a column on CNN's website and hosted two airings of his own prime-time show interviewing Shaquille O'Neal, Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Heidi Klum. Watson also hosted Meet the Faith on BET.

In 2007 Watson began hosting a series of one-hour primetime interview specials on Hearst Television stations across the country called Conversations with Carlos Watson, which won a Gracie Allen award for "Outstanding Portrait/Biography Program" and an Accolade Award in 2008.[10][11][12]

Watson was named one of People's "Hottest Bachelors" in 2004,[13] as well as Extra's list of most eligible bachelors in 2008.[14]

In early-2009, Watson was named co-anchor of an hour-long MSNBC segment on Wednesdays and Fridays at 2 p.m. with Contessa Brewer, while continuing to appear bi-weekly on Morning Joe. His most recent work includes the week-in-review news show 7 Days in America alongside Arianna Huffington, making him the fourth MSNBC host with radio platform, after Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Joe Scarborough. Watson's Air America Media program ran every weekend, featuring Watson and Arianna interviewing newsmakers about "what's really going on behind the news."[15]

Watson was a founder and investor in The Stimulist, a daily blog that operated from mid- to late 2009.[16][17][18][19]

In March 2016 PBS announced a new debate program, Point Taken, produced and hosted by Watson. The show was scheduled to air at 11 p.m. EST on Tuesdays.[20]

OZY

In September 2013, Watson launched OZY, a daily digital news and culture magazine,[21][22] with fellow former Goldman Sachs alum Samir Rao.

As CEO, Watson has led OZY to raise over $70 million in fundraising from investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, Louise Rogers, Ron Conway, and others.[23] The publication has expanded from a daily digital news publisher to a producer to TV shows for major U.S. and international networks and the producer of multiple top-100 podcast franchises. OZY has struck top-tier partnerships across its business lines with A&E Networks,[24] iHeart Media,[25] Live Nation and others under Watson's leadership as CEO.

He is the host of OZY's primetime TV shows including The Contenders, Third Rail With OZY, Breaking Big, Take On America, Black Women OWN the Conversation and Defining Moments.[1]

Watson has hosted and moderated each annual OZY Fest event in New York City's Central Park since its inception in 2016, featuring guests including John Legend, Trevor Noah, and others.

In 2020, Ozy released a co-produced podcast with the BBC World Service, hosted by Watson and the BBC's Katty Kay, titled When Katty Met Carlos.[26]

Allegations of securities fraud at OZY Media

In 2021, Ozy Media was the subject of a New York Times Article (|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/26/business/media/ozy-media-goldman-sachs.html%7Caccess-date=2021-09-28%7Cwebsite=www.nytimes.com%7Clanguage=en}}</ref> bringing attention to possibly fraudulent business practices. Ozy's COO, Samir Rao, misrepresented himself as a Google executive in an attempt to secure a $40 million investment from Goldman Sachs. Google alerted the FBI to this misrepresentation and John C. Coffee Jr, a law professor at Columbia University, noted that Rao's misrepresentation could be grounds for charges of wire and securities fraud.

References

  1. ^ a b "OZY | A Modern Media Company". OZY. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  2. ^ "Kaplan Buys Achieva and 3 Vocational Colleges". www.chronicle.com. Retrieved 2020-09-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Carlos Watson Biography - Was a Student Journalist, Phoned by Producer, Multiple Careers". biography.jrank.org. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  4. ^ Haring, Bruce (2020-07-31). "'The Carlos Watson Show' Brings Emmy-Winning OZY Cofounder To YouTube Talker". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  5. ^ Betsy Rothstein (January 19, 2005). "From kindergarten delinquent to star". The Hill. Archived from the original on September 6, 2008.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bessie King (January 1, 2008). "Get to know Carlos Watson".
  7. ^ "Carlos Watson | HuffPost". www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  8. ^ "From Silicon Valley to CNN" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2007.
  9. ^ "Achieva Project". Fromson Consulting. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008.
  10. ^ "Carlos Watson's Show Honored at Gracie Allen Awards". McKinsey & Company, Alumni News. February 25, 2008. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011.
  11. ^ "Meet Carlos Watson". Archived from the original on March 10, 2007.
  12. ^ "Conversations with Carlos Watson website".
  13. ^ "#1 Hottest Bachelor - Netscape Celebrity".
  14. ^ "Conversations with Bachelor Carlos Watson". ExtraTV. May 5, 2008.
  15. ^ "WCPT-AM". WCPT-AM. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  16. ^ Business Week on The Stimulist Archived May 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ The Nation on The Stimulist
  18. ^ "WebNewser on The Stimulist". Archived from the original on 2009-05-17. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  19. ^ FishbowlNY on The Stimulist Archived June 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ De-Costa-Klipa, Nik (March 17, 2016). "WGBH to debut 'Point Taken,' a new late-night debate TV show taped in Boston". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  21. ^ Shontell, Alyson (September 16, 2013), "Former MSNBC Anchor Launches Ozy, A Fresh News Site With Money From Laurene Powell Jobs", Business Insider.
  22. ^ Pliska, Jessica (March 20, 2017). "The Career Path Of Carlos Watson: How To Get Out Of Line". Forbes. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  23. ^ "About OZY | When we launched OZY, we had a big idea". OZY. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  24. ^ Hayes, Dade (2020-01-09). "A+E Networks And OZY Media Sign First-Look Production Deal". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  25. ^ "iHeartMedia And OZY Media Announce A Multiyear, Multiplatform, Creative Partnership". www.iheartmedia.com. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  26. ^ Hays, Kali (2020-09-23). "Katty Kay Launching First Podcast With BBC and Carlos Watson". WWD. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
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